20
The hen and the fox
Textbook: Part 2, pp. 28–33
GoalKnow the features of a fable (animal characters, symbolic meaning, moral); reflect on boasting and modesty.
New words
fable · masalsymbol · timsolboastful · maqtanchoqmodest · kamtar
Explanation
The textbook gives information about the Greek fabulist Aesop and some of his fables, among them one about a hen and a fox. We do not retell it; we read our own fable. A fable (masal) is a short work which, through animals or objects, gently mocks human behaviour and gives a lesson. In it animals stand for people: the fox for cunning and flattery, the sheep for simple people. At the end there is usually a moral, “qissadan hissa”.
Worked examples
“The Jug and the Bucket”. In a yard there lived a patterned Jug and a plain Bucket. Every day the Jug boasted: “There is no vessel as beautiful as me, and you are ugly tin.” The Bucket said nothing and carried water from the well every morning. One day the housewife took the Jug to the well, and it knocked against a stone and cracked. That day, too, it was the Bucket that brought water to the yard. The Jug felt ashamed and never boasted again. Moral: worth lies not in beauty but in usefulness.
Symbols: the Jug – a boastful person; the Bucket – a modest, hardworking person. The moral is given as “qissadan hissa”.
Class activity
“The moral”: groups try to replace the fable’s moral with one proverb.
Practice
1
What did the Jug boast about?
That no vessel was as beautiful as it
2
What did the Bucket do every morning?
It carried water from the well.
3
What happened to the Jug at the well?
It hit a stone and cracked.
4
Whom does the Jug stand for?
A boastful, conceited person
5
State the moral in your own words.
A person’s worth is in useful deeds, not in looks.