The Fox and the Actor's Masks

A fox who was prowling the streets made her way into the house of an actor, and there she found a box of actor's masks. The fox turned the box over and inspected each of the masks, one by one.
"This is a nice one!" thought the fox. "It has such a pretty face! I'll speak to it and see what happens."
So the fox then said, "Hello there!"
The mask did not reply.
"Did you hear me?" asked the fox.
No reply.
Then the fox turned the mask over. "That explains it: this pretty face doesn't have any brains!"


Inspired byMille Fabulae et Una, a collection of Latin fables that I've edited, free to read online. I am not translating the Latin here; instead, I am just telling a 100-word version of the fable.
Notes: This is fable 39 in the book, which is Perry 27. There are many variations on this fable. In the classical version, the fox finds an actor's mask, but in later versions the mask is sometimes replaced by a statue, and sometimes it is a wolf instead of a fox.

(illustration by Tenniel)


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