Ursus et duos viatores: Bear and Two Travelers
Source: Aesop's Fables, 1687 (illustrated by Francis Barlow)
Illustration comments: image.
Parallels: For parallel versions, see Perry 65.
Latin Text: Amici duo facto foedere iter inceptantes, Urso obviam dabant. Alter ex amicis trepidus arborem conscendit. Alter autem consternatus humi se mortuum simulabat et spiritum totum compressit. Accedens Ursus et ad faciem os admovens et mortuum credens, abibat, intactum relinquens. Tandem descendebat ex arbore amicus et socium accedens percontatus, quid illi susurraverat Ursus. Cui ille respondit, Monebat me Ursus, ut de falsis et perfidis amicis in posterum caverem.
Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:
Amici duo
facto foedere
iter inceptantes,
Urso
obviam dabant.
Alter ex amicis
trepidus
arborem conscendit.
Alter autem
consternatus humi
se mortuum simulabat
et spiritum totum compressit.
Accedens Ursus
et ad faciem
os admovens
et mortuum credens,
abibat,
intactum relinquens.
Tandem
descendebat ex arbore
amicus
et socium accedens
percontatus,
quid illi susurraverat
Ursus.
Cui ille respondit,
Monebat me Ursus,
ut de falsis et perfidis amicis
in posterum
caverem.
Translation:
Two friends, having made a pact, set out on a journey and ran into a bear. One of the friends was afraid and climbed a tree. The other, however, stretched out on the ground and pretended to be dead, holding his breath. The bear came up and pressed his mouth towards the man's face and, concluding he was dead, went away, leaving him unharmed. Finally the friend got down from the tree, went up to his partner and asked what the bear had whispered to him. He answered, "The bear warned me that in the future I should beware of false and treacherous friends."
[This translation is meant as a help in understanding the story, not as a "crib" for the Latin. I have not hesitated to change the syntax to make it flow more smoothly in English, altering the verb tense consistently to narrative past tense, etc.]
This edition of Aesop's fables was published in French, Latin, and English, so here it the English poem that accompanies this fable (I've modernized some of the 17th-century spelling):
A Bear approached two Travelers; one fled
To a safe tree, th'other lay still as dead.
The Bear but smelling to his face retired.
The friend descends and laughing thus inquired
What was't he whispered in his ear; quoth he,
He had me shun a treacherous friend like thee.
Illustration:
Here is an illustration from this edition, by the renowned artist Francis Barlow; click on the image for a larger view.
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