A hewer of wood in Damascus was cutting logs, and his wife sat spinning
by his side. "My departed father," she said, "was a better workman than
thou. He could chop with both hands: when the right hand was tired, he
used the left." "Nay," said he, "no woodcutter does that, he uses his
right hand, unless he be a left-handed man." "Ah, my dear," she
entreated, "try and do it as my father did." The witless wight raised his
left hand to hew the wood, but struck his right-hand thumb instead.
Without a word he took the axe and smote her on the head, and she died.
His deed was noised about; the woodcutter was seized and stoned for his
crime. Therefore, continued the fox, I say unto thee, all women are
deceivers and trappers of souls. And let me tell you more of these wily
stratagems.
The fox reinforces his argument by relating an episode in which a contrast
is drawn between