We give two stories as specimens of animal tales, which are neither
allegories, nor fables, and still less satires. The reader must
remember the phrase, "This happened when animals and all things could
talk." So thoroughly is this believed, that the first tale of this
class recited to us completely puzzled us. The animals are in them
placed so fully on a footing with human beings--not in the least as
our "poor relations," but rather as sharper-witted, and quite as
happy and well off as ourselves--that it is difficult at times to
determine whether it is the beast or the man who is the speaker.
Of the latter part of our first story we have heard many variations. In
one given by M. Cerquand, p. 29, note, [36] the fox is represented by
Basa-Jauna; in a version from Baigorry, by the Tartaro; but in three
others, from separate localities, he is a fox. The first two truths are
the same in all the versions. In that here given, the fun is heightened
by the fox talking and lisping throughout like a little child. All
these versions we take to be merely fragments of a much longer story.
In M. Cerquand's "The Chandelier of St. Sauveur," p. 22, the hero's
name is Acherihargaix--"the fox difficult to be caught;" and we
suspect that he, too, was originally merely an animal.