THE LIFE OF AESOP
Translated by Sir Roger L'Estrange
CHAPTER I
Of Aesop's Country, Condition, and Person
AESOP ( according to Planudes, Cameraius and others) was by
Birth, of Ammorius, a Town in the greater Phrygia; (though some
will have him to be a Thracian, others a Samian) of a mean Con-
dition, and his Person deformed, to the highest degree: Flat-nos'd,
hunch-back'd, blobber-lipp'd; a long mishapen Head; his Body
crooked all over, big-belly'd, badger-legg'd, and his Complexion
so swarthy, that he took his very Name from't; for AEsop is the same
with Aethiop. And he was not only unhappy in the most scandalous
Figure of a Man, that ever was heard of; but he was in a manner
Tongue-ty'd too, by such an Impediment in his Speech, that
People could very hardly understand what he said. This imper-
fection is said, to have been the most sensible Part of his Mis-
fortune; for the Excellency of his Mind might otherwise have
atton'd in some Measure, for the uncouth Appearance of his Person
(at least if that Part of his History may pass for Current.) There
goes a Tradition, that he had the good Hap to relieve certain
Priests that were hungry, and out of their Way, and to set them
right again; and that for a good Office, he was upon their Prayers,
brought to the Use of his Tongue: But Camerarius, whom I shall
principally follow, has no Faith in the Miracle, and so he begins
his History with the tracing of him to Samos, and from thence
prosecutes it through the most remarkable Passages of his Life, to
the last barbarous Violence upon him at Delphos. As to his Impedi-
ment in his Speech, whether there were any such thing or not, or
how he came to be cur'd of it, the Reader is at Liberty what to
believe and what not. And so likewise for twenty other Passages
up and down this History: Some of them too trivial, and others
too gross to be taken notice of, upon this Argument and Occasion.
Let it suffice, that (according to the common Tradition) he had
been already twice bought and sold; and so we shall date the Story
of his Adventures, from his entrance into the Service of at least
a third Master.
As to the Age he liv'd in, it is agreed upon among the Antients,
that it was when Croesus govern'd Lydia; as also that Xanthus, a
Samian, was his Master. Herodotus will have it to be one Jadmon
a Samian too; but still according to the Current of most Writers,
Xanthus was the Man.