The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Liber Quartus/Fable 16

Numbered 137 in the Perry Index. Translated from French by William Caxton and first published in 1484. Click here to create an annotated version of this text.

3810148The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Liber Quartus — Fable 16: The Camel and the FleeWilliam Caxton

¶ The xvj fable is of the camel / and of the flee

HE that hath no myght ought not to gloryfye ne preyse hym self of nothynge / As reherceth to vs this presente fable of a camell / whiche bare a grete charge or burden It happed that a flee by cause of the camels here lepte to the back of the camel / and made her to be borne of hym all the day  And whanne they had made a grete way / And that the camel came at euen to the lodgys / and was put in the stable / the flee lepte fro hym to the grounde besyde the foote of the camel / And after sayd to the camel / I haue pyte of the / and am comen doune fro thy back by cause that I wylle nomore greue ne trauaylle the by the berynge of me / And the camel sayd to the flee / I thanke thee / how be it that I am not sore laden of the / And therfore of hym which may neyther helpe ne lette men nede not make grete estymacion of