• Cover
• Once Told: An Anthology of World Folklore
• Publication Information
• Chapter 1: Conquests, Tests, and Quests
• East of the Sun and West of the Moon
• The Song of Hiawatha
• Rumpelstiltskin
• The Three Delicate Wives of King Virtue
• Juan and Clotilde
• The King's Treasure
• Lady Godiva
• The Three Billy Goats Gruff
• The Goose Girl
• The Story of Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp
• Additional Readings: Conquests, Tests, and Quests
• Chapter 2: Tricks and Tricksters
• The Valiant Little Tailor
• Puss in Boots
• Peik
• Big Peter and Little Peter
• The Emperor’s New Clothes
• The Fox and the Crow
• How the Tortoise Provoked a Contest of Strength Between the Tapir and Whale
• Old Nick and the Girl
• Hymn to Hermes
• The Simpleton and the Sharper
• Additional Readings: Tricks and Tricksters
• Chapter 3: Heroes and Heroines
• Niagara
• Li Chi Slays the Serpent
• Molly Whuppie and the Double-Faced Giant
• The Three Golden Hairs: The Story of a Charcoal Burner’s Son Who Married a Princess
• Theseus and the Minotaur
• Orpheus
• Perseus the Hero
• Additional Readings: Heroes and Heroines
• Chapter 4: Taboo
• Blue Beard
• Little Snow-White
• The Fisher-Boy Urashima
• Rapunzel
• The Fairy Dwelling on Selana Moore
• The Twelve Brothers
• Our Lady's Child
• How the Devil Married Three Sisters
• Hymn to Demeter
• The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
• Additional Readings: Taboo
• Chapter 5: Shapeshifters
• The Frog-Prince
• The Blacksmith’s Wife of Yarrowfoot
• The She-Wolf
• The Mermaid Wife
• The Princess Peony
• The Magician and his Pupil
• The Seven Iron Slippers
• How Uther Pendragon made war on the duke of Cornwall, and how by the mean of Merlin he lay by the duchess and gat Arthur
• The Woman Who Humored Her Lover at Her Husband’s Expense
• The Second Kalandar’s Tale
• Additional Readings: Shapeshifters
• Chapter 6: Magic and Curses
• The Snow, The Crow, and The Blood
• The Charcoal-maker who Became King
• The Black School
• The Flying Dutchman
• The Book of Magic
• Briar Rose
• The Shoemaker and the Elves
• The Crystal Ball
• Cinderilla; or The Little Glass Slipper
• The Tale of the Trader and Jinni
• Additional Readings: Magic and Curses
• Chapter 7: The Dead
• Orpheus and Eurydice
• The Story of the Messenger from Heaven
• A Story from the Time of the Romans
• A Ghost Story
• Dividing Souls
• Maku Mawu and Maku Fia or "I Will Die God's Death" and "I Will Die the King's Death"
• The White Butterfly
• The Old Woman Who Never Dies
• The Galloping Hessian
• Sila Tsarevich and Ivashka with the White Smock
• Fair Margaret and Sweet William
• The Suffolk Miracle
• Additional Readings: The Dead
• Chapter 8: Animals and Creatures of the Other World
• The Monster Mosquitoe
• Miss Britton’s Poker
• Bruce and the Spider
• The Griffin and the Minor Canon
• Beauty and the Beast
• The White Cat
• The Farmer and the Devil on Island of the Popefigs
• How the Fairies Worked Magic
• Three Leprechauns
• The Little Mermaid
• The Vampire Cat
• The Fourth Voyage of Sinbad
• Additional Readings: Animals and Creatures of the Other World
• Bibliography
• Conquests, Tests, and Quests
• Tricks and Tricksters
• Heroes and Heroines
• Taboo
• Shapeshifters
• Magic and Curses
• The Dead
• Animals and Creatures of the Other World

The Fox and the Crow

Aesop

A Crow was sitting on a branch of a tree with a piece of cheese in her beak when a Fox observed her and set his wits to work to discover some way of getting the cheese. Coming and standing under the tree he looked up and said, "What a noble bird I see above me! Her beauty is without equal, the hue of her plumage exquisite. If only her voice is as sweet as her looks are fair, she ought without doubt to be Queen of the Birds." The Crow was hugely flattered by this, and just to show the Fox that she could sing she gave a loud caw. Down came the cheese, of course, and the Fox, snatching it up, said, "You have a voice, madam, I see: what you want is wits."

The Fox and the Crow by Leon Rousseau, 1825