and as the lady-bird stretches her wings she replies:
“Go home yourself—I am quite happy where I am.”
Then a praying-mantis kneels before you and you ask:
“Praying-mantis, art so wise,
Know you where the sly fox lies?”
The mantis raises a long thin arm and points to the mountains.
A lizard sits warming himself in the sun and you address him with the correct formula:
“Little lizard, be my friend
’Gainst all snakes that bite and bend,
Then I’ll give you grains of salt
When before my house you halt.”
“Your house! And when will you be back there?” the lizard says as plainly as you could yourself, and, with a whisk, disappears in his hole.
Should you meet a snail, you greet him in this fashion: