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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 demanded of the Monkey if he were an Athenian, who
answered that he was, and that he was descended from one of the
noblest families in that city.
The Dolphin then inquired if he knew the Pirĉus (the famous harbor
of Athens). The Monkey, supposing that a man was meant, and being
obliged to support his previous lie, answered that he knew him very
well, and that he was an intimate friend, who would, no doubt, be
very glad to see him. The Dolphin, indignant at these falsehoods,
dipped the Monkey under the water, and drowned him.
Moral of Aesops Fable:
He who once begins to tell falsehoods is obliged to tell others to
make them appear true, and, sooner or later, they will get him into
trouble.
The Monkey and the Dolphin
Fable
An Aesop's Fable
With the Moral:
He who once begins to tell falsehoods is obliged to tell others to
make them appear true, and, sooner or later, they will get him into
trouble. |
