The Two Pots

In this connection, there is a likeness between the story and a passage in the Biblical apocrypha's book of Ecclesiasticus that advises caution in such unequal relationships: 'Have no fellowship with one that is richer than thyself.

In its second section, which deals with the gaining of friends, there is a long debate between Hiranyaka the rat and Laghupatanaka the crow about partnership between such natural enemies as themselves.

The aim of his collection was to point a moral lesson through an iconic illustration, supported by Latin verses (and translations into other languages) and a commentary.

In 1713 Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, was to use La Fontaine's version of the story in her lively recreation, "The Brass-Pot and Stone-Jugg".

In the lively woodblock print by the Japanese artist Kawanabe Kyosai, the pots are given human forms and shown tossed on the waves of a heavy sea.

The gated town in the background is almost identical, but Tenniel shows the two pots becalmed in an eddy near the mouth of an estuary.

There the pots are tossed on waves as they are carried towards the sea; in the background are mountains with a town at their foot and a castle perched on a height.