47. Vulpes a Gallo Auxilium Implorans. Famelica vulpes, ut fraude gallum gallinaceum quem conspexerat allicere ad se atque capere posset, humi se prosternit et alterum oculum comprimit, cum miserabili querimonia et imploratione auxilii a gallo, sibi qui eximeret spinam de oculo, cui illa paulo ante vadenti per sentes infixa esset. Gallus, intellecto dolo, “Non ego medicus sum,” inquit, “et si incautius ad oculos forte unguiculos admoverim, periculum fuerit, ne calcaribus meis etiam sanus oculus laedatur. Sed paululum exspectare si vis, ego domum nostram advolabo, et inde qui tibi medeatur accersam.” Vulpes et ipsa sentiebat dolose agere gallum; se igitur pati velle ait quod necesse sit, nam saepe audivisse, multis medicis utendum non esse.
Image Source: From the
French Roman de Renart by Pierre de Saint-Cloud.
M0047 (not in Perry). Source: Camerarius 445. This fable is not in Perry’s catalog. The poetic phrase odora canum vis, “keen-scented pack of hounds,” is an echo of Vergil, Aeneid 4.132. Compare the story of the lion who is indeed tricked by the horse into being a doctor, #6. See also the foolish rooster and hen who take pity on the fox, #561.
