Loincloth

“ AN Ass found a Lion’s Skin, and dressed himself up in it. Then he went about frightening every one he met, for they all took him to be a lion, men and beasts alike, and took to their heels when they saw him coming. ”

“ In lieu of the long robe reaching to the feet, which seems to have been the ordinary costume of the higher classes, we observe sometimes a shorter, but still a similar garment—a sort of coat without sleeves, fringed down both sides, and reaching only a little below the knee. ”

“ Early one morning one of our herdsmen came running up to us in great fright, and announced that a lion was devouring a lioness! We thought at first that the man must be mistaken; but his story was perfectly true, and only her skull, the larger bones, and the skin were left. ”

“ At this juncture a quiet-looking, oldish gentleman, entirely unlike either an elephant, a lion, or a vulture, of medium height, with grey whiskers, a black coat, and a neat black tie fastened in a bow, came round the corner, leading a little girl by the hand. ”

“ A real lace collar lay softly over her enormous, billowing shoulders; real lace ruffles lay over her great, shapeless hands. Her face, the delicacy of whose features was veiled with flesh, flushed and paled. Not even flesh could subdue the sad brilliancy of her dark-blue eyes, fixed inward upon her own sad state, unregardful of the company. ”

“ So he turned and twisted himself about, and bellowed and made faces; but he did not become a lion for all that.
‘Well, perhaps it is very difficult to change into a lion. Make yourself a bear,’ said the princess. But the Red Knight found it no easier to become a bear than a lion.
‘Try a bee,’ suggested she. ‘I have always read that anyone who can do magic at all can do that.’ And the old knight buzzed and hummed, but he remained a man and not a bee. ”

“ In the ass, too, it is longer than in the horse, but in beasts of burden it is covered with bristly hairs. The tail of the lion, at the extremity, is like that of the ox and the field-mouse; but this is not the case with the panther. In the fox and the wolf it is covered with long hair, as in sheep, in which it is longer also. ”

“ Stripped of the cunning artifices of the tailor, and standing forth in the garb of Eden—what a sorry, set of round-shouldered, spindle-shanked, crane-necked varlets would civilized men appear! Stuffed calves, padded breasts, and scientifically cut pantaloons would then avail them nothing, and the effect would be truly deplorable. ”

“ He is said to have the body of a serpent, with human legs and arms—all supplied with immense nails, which he employs for the double purpose of digging up the earth, and dissecting the bodies upon which he feeds; his head is like that of the wolf, and his teeth of a peculiar sharpness. ”

“ When he is curious, or alarmed, he stretches his body until he seems incredibly tall and of the size of his neck all the way. When he is cold, he makes himself into a round ball of feathers.
think I envy him most when he goes to sleep. He takes up one leg somewhere into his bosom, crooks the other a trifle, shortens his neck, closes his eyes,—and it is done. He does not appear to hover a moment in the borderland between sleeping and waking but hops over the line with the same superb decision with which he drops from his perch to the floor. ”

“ Those nostrils are dilated sometimes with anger, at others with the pleasures of the chase; and the arched neck, the broad muscular chest, the graceful, curving lines of the body, the well-shaped, sinewy limbs, sometimes slender and delicate in their proportions, bear these beautiful creatures over hill and dale almost with the swiftness of a bird; while their long mane and tail float in the air, as if the creature whom they adorn were about to soar to heaven. ”

“ There appears to be here an illusion to the moving and pulling forward the collar or yoke of beasts which have been hard at work, to let in the cool air between it and their neck, so as to refresh them, and prevent that heat, which with the sweat would scald their necks, and take off not only the hair, but the skin. ”

“ The ass makes the lion believe that he, the ass, was the real king of beasts. The wolf, to whom the lion says that he was not the real king but that another animal claimed the right to rule, listens incredulously. The lion ties their two tails together and takes the wolf to the summit of a hill, from which they can see the ass. The lion, misunderstanding the exclamation of the wolf and thinking that he said “there are six,” runs away as fast as he can, dragging the wolf behind him and killing him in his mad flight. ”

“ The little striped hornet heats his nose with a spirit lamp and goes forth searching for the man with the linen pantaloons. All nature is full of life and activity. So is the man with the linen pantaloons. ”

“ A lion dwells in the garden, who will spring [88] out and devour you, as he has devoured the rest. Therefore, arm yourself with armour, and see that the armour be anointed thickly with ointment. When the lion sees you, he will take your arm or your leg into his mouth, and his teeth shall stick fast in the ointment, and when you sunder yourself from him his teeth shall be drawn out, and you shall kill him easily. But during the fight beware lest you let go the clue. ”

“ Besides, the lion is with them the symbol of strength and prowess, as the ox clearly is of the earth itself, and husbandry and food, and the horse of fortitude and confidence; while, on the other hand, the sphinx, of strength combined with intelligence—as it had a body entirely that of a lion, and the face of a man. Similarly to these, to indicate intelligence, and memory, and power, and art, a man is sculptured in the temples. ”

“ I, we have a variation of the other Æsopian fable of the lion who is afraid of the ass. The old witch, in order to deliver herself from the lion which Petrosinella has caused to rise, flays an ass and dresses herself in its skin; the lion, believing it to be really an ass, runs off.—In the thirteenth of the Sicilian stories collected by Signora Laura Gonzenbach, and published at Leipzig by Brockhaus, the ass and the lion dispute the spoil; the young hero divides it, giving to the ass the hay that the lion has in its mouth, and to the lion the bones in the ass's mouth. ”

“ Nothing can be more just than the expression of sleep in the countenance of the little divinity. His lion too is perfectly lulled, and rests his muzzle upon his fore paws as quiet as a domestic spaniel. My ill-humour at seeing this deity so grossly sculptured in the gallery, was dissipated by the gracefulness of his appearance in the tribune. ”

“ They even in archaic ages wore bear-skins, which we have seen to be a common rite in the dances of totemistic peoples, when the worshippers clothe themselves in the skin of the animal whose feast they celebrate. ”

“ The Ass in the Lion's Skin.
An ass, by some means unknown to the writer, having managed to get into a lion's skin, ran around the neighborhood frightening the beasts into fits. When he brayed, they said: "Jupiter! what a magnificent bass voice he has!" and he was the pantata of that district until he died of old age.
IMMORAL:
A good bluff, well chucked, is liable to do considerable execution.
The Ass in the Lion's Skin
The Horse and the Oyster. ”

“ The lofty headdress, with broad flaps extending over each ear almost to the shoulders, has in front the head and upper jaw of some mythological animal, the latter projecting well over the face of the god, as if in the act of swallowing him. ”

“ The pretty moons of color, cream or bronze, pulsating along their tawny sides, seem but so many outer ripples of a heart-ache subtle enough to move your own. Couchant, with a droop of the bearded chest, or erect, with an eternal restless four steps and back again, they drag through, in public, their defeated days. It is inconceivable that we should attach the idea of depravity to a lion. ”

“ The above-mentioned woolen materials are on the whole preferable, as they are quite as warm as fur, when covered with the brown holland, in addition to which evaporation from the body will generally make its way through woolens, and escape into the air, but in the fur robe is arrested and condenses in it. ”

“ In that garden there is an enormous lion which devours every one who enters with the hope of marrying me. Arm thyself, therefore, cap-a-pee, and cover your armour with gummy flax. As soon as you have entered the garden the lion will rush toward you; attack him manfully, and when you are weary, leave him. ”

“ Of a truth the lion kept the child unharmed, by God's ordinance; the shepherds of the country, seeing that the lion bare the child thus alive, ran after and rescued it; and also the husbandmen rescued the other child from the wolf. ”

“ Verse 28
The lion had not eaten the carcass, nor torn the ass - All here was preternatural. The lion, though he had killed the man, does not devour him; the ass stands quietly by, not fearing the lion; and the lion does not attempt to tear the ass: both stand as guardians of the fallen prophet. How evident is the hand of God in all! ”

“ A fringed garment, like that described, is also sometimes worn about the shoulders; in cold weather a fur robe is wrapped about the body from the hips to the armpits, forming a close and warm vest; and over all is sometimes thrown a cape, or fur blanket, like that of the men, varying in quality and value with the wealth of the wearer. ”

“ The former is now the more common in the country; but the latter, which is the fiercer of the two, is the one ordinarily represented upon the sculptures. The lioness is nearly as much feared as the lion; when her young are attacked, or when she has lost them, she is perhaps even more terrible. Her roar is said to be deeper and far more imposing than of the male. ”

“ In the underworld lion-headed deities guarded some of the halls and pylons there, and that the lion was connected in some way with the dead is proved by the fact that the head of the bier was always made in the form of a lion's head, while the foot was not seldom decorated with a lion's tail. ”

“ He adds, the Curse of the Serpent is not only to go upon its Breast, but, and thou shalt go upon thy Belly. q. d. “Since Pleasure was thy Desire, let the Pleasure of the Earth enter into it. The Belly, says the Allegorizer, is the Receptacle of most Pleasures of the Animal Kind.” Creatures that go upon four Feet, or more, are deem’d impure; and such is he, who is a Lover of terrene Pleasures; such a Person may be said, always to go upon his Belly, because he studies nothing more than its Gratification. Pleasure indeed, is attended with a Train of Allurements and Charms. ”

“ In her plain white linen frock, with the sun in her hair and her eyes looking unnaturally large, owing to the pallor of her beautiful face, she seemed to the man who rose to greet her an ethereal creature, but lightly linked to the flesh and blood world. ”

“ That the garments of angels do not merely appear as garments, but are real garments, is evident from the fact that angels both see them and feel them, that they have many garments, and that they put them off and put them on, that they care for those that are not in use, and put them on again when they need them. ”

“ These serpents have one bone reaching from the head to the tail, it is so strong that the whole body is formed upon this one bone, and green as you see it here in this scabbard and hilt and belt, and because it grew in that boiling sea no fire can burn it. ”

“ How, then, was the Devil dressed?
Oh! he was in his Sunday's best;
His coat was red, and his breeches were blue,
And there was a hole where his tail came through. ”

“ It is a common saying, a Lion feareth no bugs. But in our childhood our mothers’ maids have so terrified us with an ugly devil having hornes on his head, fire in his mouth, and a taile at his back, eyes like a bason, fanges like a dog, clawes like a beare, a skinne like a Niger, and a voice roring like a Lion, whereby we start and are afraid when we hear one cry Bough; they have so fraied us with bullbeggars, spirits, urchens, elves, hags, fairies, satyrs, pans, fauns, sylens (syrens?) ”

“ He had a big, sickly head, brown eyes like a spaniel, precociously intelligent, and a neck shockingly delicate in the back where it took the weight of the skull, legs like broom-handles, and hands of great length and character like a sculptor's. ”

“ Now the lion is an intellectual beast, at least he has that reputation; but what creature lives, that can take in, and hold, two ideas at one time? But, to have seventeen colors, hues, tints, and shades, moving before him, fairly scrambled the contents of the lion’s brain pan. ”

“ Between the feet, descending from the body, another wreathed serpent rested its head on the ground, and the whole composition of this deity is strictly appropriate to the infernal purpose for which it was used, and with which the personal ornaments too well accord. From the neck, spreading over its deformed breast, is a necklace composed of human hands, hearts, and skulls—fit emblems of the sanguinary rites daily performed in its honour. ”

“ It strikes me, that the true interpretation of this device, and the introduction of the lion and the lizard-like animal under the horse's feet, may be found in the 13th verse of Psalm xci.:
"Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet."
I should like to learn from some of your correspondents, whether this Psalm, or this portion of it, was used in the solemnities attendant on the installation of a knight, which would tend much to confirm my conjecture. ”

“ Granted, however, that these tresses may be finely placed, still they are not like a lion's mane. So we come back to the question,—if the face is to be like a man's face, why is not the lion's mane to be like a lion's mane? ”

“ I said: “I never saw the flesh of any person’s face like the flesh in the faces which that man paints. He reminds me of wax-work. Why does he paint the same waxy flesh in all four of his pictures? I don’t see the same colored flesh in all the faces about us.” ”