A FISHERMAN skilled in music took his flute and his nets to the
seashore. Standing on a projecting rock, he played several tunes in the
hope that the fish, attracted by his melody, would of their own accord
dance into his net, which he had placed below. At last, having long waited
in vain, he laid aside his flute, and casting his net into the sea, made
an excellent haul of fish. When he saw them leaping about in the net upon
the rock he said: "O you most perverse creatures, when I piped you would
not dance, but now that I have ceased you do so merrily."
