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4 The Eagle and the Scarab Beetle

An eagle was once pursuing a hare. This hare, seeing his position was hopeless, turned to the only creature whom fate offered for help:it was a scarab beetle.The hare begged the beetle to save him.The scarab beetle reassured him, and upon the eagle's approach the beetle beseeched her not to carry off the hare.But the eagle, disdaining his small size and insignificance, devoured the hare as the beetle looked on.

From that time, the scarab beetle, full of malice, never ceases to search out the places where the eagle builds her nest. And when the eggs are laid, the beetle gets into the nest, hoists himself up and rolls the eggs out of the nest so that they fall and break.

The eagle is consecrated to Zeus, and so the eagle appealed to Zeus to find her a safe sanctuary where she could raise her young. Zeus allowed her to lay her eggs in his lap.But the scarab beetle saw through this trick.He made a pellet of dung, took flight, and when he got above the lap of Zeus he let it fall.Zeus stood up to shake off the dung pellet, and the eggs were thrown to the ground without his thinking.

Since that time, it is said, eagles no longer nest during the season when the scarab beetles appear.

The fable teaches one not to despise anyone. One must say to oneself that there is no being so feeble that he is not capable one day of avenging an insult. khZdZDXh7TrRhr5fT5YHwRR0l+VqXhgNqapRDaoeuOx9RericaP/AldHynAsV/T9

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