turned and fled. So the folk looked into the cleft and, spying the wolf, set to pelting him with heavy stones, and they stinted not smiting him with stones and sticks, and stabbing him with spears, till they killed him and went away. Thereupon the fox returned to that cleft and, standing over the spot where his foe had been slain, saw the wolf dead: so he wagged his head for very joyance and began to recite these couplets,
"Fate the Wolf's soul snatched up from wordly stead; * Far be from bliss his soul that perished! Abu Sirhan![FN#164] how sore thou sought'st my death; * Thou, burnt this day in fire of sorrow dread: Thou'rt fallen into pit, where all who fall * Are blown by Death-blast down among the dead."
Thenceforward the aforesaid fox abode alone in the vineyard unto the hour of his death secure and fearing no hurt. And such are the adventures of the wolf and the fox. But men also tell a
The Mouse and the Ichneumon[FN#165]
A mouse and an ichneumon once dwelt in the house of a peasant who was very poor; and when one of his friends sickened, the doctor prescribed him husked sesame. So the hind sought of one of his comrades sesame to be husked by way of healing the sick man; and, when a measure thereof was given to him, he carried it home to his wife and bade her dress it. So