purpose?" "Fool, fool!" answered the donkey. "Do you think me ignorant of vocal music? Listen to its systematization, as follows:
Seven notes, three scales, and twenty-one
Are modulations said to be;
Of pitches there are forty-nine,
Three measures, also pauses three;
Caesuras three; and thirty-six
Arrangements of the notes, in fine;
Six apertures; the languages
Are forty; sentiments are nine.
One hundred songs and eighty-five
Are found in songbooks, perfect, pure,
With all accessories complete,
Unblemished in their phrasing sure.
On earth is nothing nobler found,
Nor yet in heaven, than vocal song;
The singing Devil soothes the Lord,
When quivering strings the sound prolong.
"After this, how can you think me lacking in educated taste? How can you try to hinder me?"
"Very well, uncle," said the jackal. "I will stay by the gap in the hedge, and look for farmers. You may sing to heart's content."
When he had done so, the donkey lifted his neck and began to utter sounds. But the farmers, hearing the bray of a donkey, angrily clenched their teeth, snatched cudgels, rushed in, and beat him so that he fell to the ground. Next they hobbled him by fasten-
