The fox follows up these effective narratives with a lengthy string of
well-worn quotations against women, of which the following are a few:
Socrates, the wise and saintly, hated and despised them. His wife was thin
and short. They asked him, "How could a man like you choose such a woman
for your wrife?" "I chose," said Socrates, "of the evil the least possible
amount." "Why, then, do you look on beautiful women?" "Neither," said
Socrates, "from love nor from desire, but to admire the handiwork of God in
their outward form. It is within that they are foul." Once he was walking
by the way, and he saw a woman hanging from a fig-tree. "Would," said
Socrates, "that all the fruit were like this."--A nobleman built a new
house, and wrote over the door, "Let nothing evil pass this way." "Then how
does his wife go in?" asked Diogenes.--"Your enemy is dead," said one to
another. "I would rather hear that he had got married," was the reply.
"So much," said the fox to the leopard, "I have told thee that thou mayest
know how little women are to be trusted. They deceive men in life, and
betray them in death." "But," queried the leopard, "what could my wife do
to harm me after I am dead?" "Listen," rejoined the fox, "and I will tell
thee of a deed viler than any I have narrated hitherto."