THE FOX AND THE WOLF.
THE FOX AND THE BIRD.
In the foregoing the fox appears true to his character as an unscrupulous, grasping, wily wretch, and in the following he appears as over reached by a bird. Considering the character the fox bears, one is glad when he is paid back in his own coin. The bird in the tale is by some rendered Kestrel Hawk, and by others Hen Harrier. The story was heard in Tiree, in which are no trees on which the bird could sit, and no hawks or foxes to make the story applicable. The lesson which the fable implies is one that is useful everywhere.
A Deargan-allt, Eun Fionn, was dosing by a river side, when a Fox came and caught it, and was going to devour it. “Oh don’t, don’t,” said the bird, “and I will lay an egg as big as your head.”
He protested this so loudly, and so solemnly, that the fox loosened his hold till the bird at last flew up into a tree. Here sitting on a branch, and safe from further injury, it said to the fox, “I will not lay an egg as big as your head, for I cannot do it, but I will give you three pieces of advice, and if you will observe them, they will do you more good in the future. One, first, “Never believe an unlikely story from unreliable authority (Na creid naigheachd mi-choltach fo urrainn mi-dhealbhach). Secondly, “Never make a great fuss about a small matter (Na dean dearmail mhòr mu rud beag), and thirdly”—here the bird seemed to take time, and the fox having his curiosity now excited listened, though it was with firmly clasped teeth and pangs of hunger—“Whatever you get a hold of, take a firm hold of it” (Rud air an dean thu greim, dean greim gu ro-mhath air), saying this, the bird flew away, and the fox, thus neatly sold, was left lamenting.
THE WREN.
In the Fables relating to animals the fox readily takes a lead, and is characterised as an unscrupulous and unprincipled rascal. Next to him the wren, which is the smallest (or at least has the name of being so) of British birds figures, and has got the name not only of being small, but also of being forward and pert. The first or most prominent of these fables is that in which the wren appears as contesting with the eagle the supremacy among birds, and this story may be said to be as widely extended over the Highlands as the birds themselves. There was to be a contest which bird should fly highest, and the wren jumped upon the eagle’s back. When the eagle had soared as high as it could, it said, “Where are you now, brown wren?” (C’ àite bheil thu, dhreathan donn?). The wren jumped up a little higher and said, “Far, far, above you” (Fada fada fos do chionn). In consequence of this extraordinary feat the wren has twelve eggs while the eagle has only two.
Natural historians assert that the number of wren’s eggs in one nest seldom exceed eight, but others have stated that the most number is twelve or even fourteen. In these tales which have been got together in the West Highlands, the number is uniformly said to be twelve, but whether this is actually the case or merely an assumption, there is no call here for enquiring.
The wren and his twelve sons were threshing corn in a barn, when a fox entered and claimed one of the workers for his prize. It was agreed, since he must get some one, that it should be the old wren, if he himself could point him out from the rest. The thirteen wrens were so much alike that the fox was puzzled. At last he said, “It is easy to distinguish the stroke of the old hero himself” (’S fhurasda buille an t-sean laoich aithneachadh). On hearing this, the old wren gave himself a jauntier air, and said, “there was a day when such was the case” (Bha latha dha sin). After this the fox had no difficulty, for boasting was always illfated (bha tubaist air a’ bhòsd riamh) and he took his victim without any dispute.