[133] This occurs in the several Asiatic versions of the Book
        of Sindibad (Story of the Sandalwood Merchant); in the
        Gesta Romanorum; in the old English metrical Tale of
        Beryn; in one of the Italian Novelle of Sacchetti;
        and in the exploits of Tyl Eulenspiegel, the German
        Rogue.

A party of scientific guests are coming to dinner one day, and Esop is set just within the door to keep out “all but the wise.”  When there is a knock at the door Esop shouts:  “What does the dog shake?” and all save one go away in high dudgeon, thinking he means them; but this last answers:  “His tail,” and is admitted.

At a public festival an eagle carries off the municipal ring, and Esop obtains his freedom by order of the state for his interpretation of this omen—­that some king purposes to annex Samos.  This, it turns out, is Croesus, who sends to claim tribute.  Hereupon Esop relates his first fable, that of the Wolf, the Dog, and the Sheep, and, going on an embassy to Croesus, that of the Grasshopper who was caught by the Locust-gatherer.  He brings home “peace with honour.”  After this Esop travels over the world, showing his wisdom and wit.  At Babylon he is made much of by the king.  He then visits Egypt and confounds the sages in his monarch’s behalf.  Once more he returns to Greece, and at Delphi is accused of stealing a sacred golden bowl and condemned to be hurled from a rock.  He pleads the fables of the Matron of Ephesus,[134] the Frog and the Mouse, the Beetle and the Eagle, the Old Farmer and his Ass-waggon, and others, but all is of no avail, and the villains break his neck.

  [134] Taken from Petronius Arbiter.  The story is widely
        spread.  It is found in the Seven Wise Masters,
        and—­mutatis mutandis—­is well known to the Chinese. 
        Planudes takes some liberties with his original,
        substituting for the soldier guarding the suspended
        corpse of a criminal, who “comforts” the sorrowing
        widow, a herdsman with his beasts, which he loses in
        prosecuting his amour.

* * * * *

Such are some of the apocryphal sayings and doings of Esop the fabulist—­the manner of his death being the only circumstance for which there is any authority.  The idea of his bodily deformity is utterly without foundation, and may have been adopted as a foil to his extraordinary shrewdness and wit, as exhibited in the anecdotes related of him by Planudes.  That there was nothing uncouth in the person of Esop is evident from the fact that the Athenians erected a fine statue of him, by the famed sculptor Lysippus.—­The Latin collection of the fables ascribed to Esop was first printed at Rome in 1473 and soon afterwards translated into most of the languages of Europe.  About the year 1480 the Greek text was printed at Milan.  From a French version Caxton printed them