She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the crow pursued,
"They relate that there was once a saker who was a cruel tyrant in the
days of his youth, so that the raveners of the air and the scavengers
of the earth feared him, none being safe from his mischief; and many
were the haps and mishaps of his tyranny and his violence, for this
saker was ever in the habit of oppressing and injuring all the other
birds. As the years passed over him, he grew feeble and his force
failed him, so that he was often famished; but his cunning waxed
stronger with the waning of his strength and redoubled in his endeavour
and determined to be present at the general assembly of the birds, that
he might eat of their orts and leavings; so in this manner he fed by
fraud instead of feeding by fierceness and force. And out, O fox, art
like this: if thy might fail thee, thy sleight faileth thee not; and I
doubt not that thy seeking my society is a fraud to get thy food; but I
am none of those who fall to thee and put fist into thy fist;[FN#170]
for that Allah hath vouchsafed force to my wings and caution to my mind
and sharp sight to my eyes; and I know that whoso apeth a stronger than
he, wearieth himself and haply cometh to ruin. Wherefore I fear for
thee lest, if thou ape a stronger than thyself, there befal thee what
befel the sparrow." Asked the fox, "What befel the sparrow?" Allah
upon thee, tell me his tale." And the crow began to relate the story
of