Character Index | Proverb Index
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| Character Index | Proverb Index |
Townsend version
A sailor, bound on a long voyage, took with him a Monkey to amuse him while on shipboard. As he sailed off the coast of Greece, a violent tempest arose in which the ship was wrecked and he, his Monkey, and all the crew were obliged to swim for their lives. A Dolphin saw the Monkey contending with the waves, and supposing him to be a man (whom he is always said to befriend), came and placed himself under him, to convey him on his back in safety to the shore. When the Dolphin arrived with his burden in sight of land not far from Athens, he asked the Monkey if he were an Athenian. The latter replied that he was, and that he was descended from one of the most noble families in that city. The Dolphin then inquired if he knew the Piraeus (the famous harbor of Athens). Supposing that a man was meant, the Monkey answered that he knew him very well and that he was an intimate friend. The Dolphin, indignant at these falsehoods, dipped the Monkey under the water and drowned him.
L'Estrange version
People were us'd in the days of old, to carry game-some puppies and apes with 'em to sea, to pass away the time withall. Now there was one of these apes, it seems, aboard a vessel that was cast away in a very great storm. As the men were paddling for their lives, and the ape for company, a certain dolphin that took him for a man, got him upon his back and was making towards land with him. He had him into a safe road call'd the Pyraeus, and took occasion to ask the ape, whether he was an Athenian or not? He told him, yes, and of a very ancient family there. Why then (says the dolphin) you know Pyraeus: Oh! exceedingly well, says t'other, (taking it for the name of a man) why Pyraeus is my very particular good friend. The dolphin, upon this, had such an indignation for the impudence of the buffoon-ape that he gave him the slip from between his legs, and there was an end of my very good friend, the Athenian.
Moral
Bragging, lying, and pretending, has cost many a man his life and estate.
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Tom Simondi, All Rights Reserved