Krilof and His Fables/The Inquisitive Man
The Inquisitive Man.
"Good day, dear friend; where do you come from?"
"From the Museum, where I have spent three hours. I saw everything they have there, and examined it carefully. So much have I seen to astonish me, that, if you will believe me, I am neither strong enough nor clever enough to give you a full description of it. Upon my word it is a palace of wonders. How rich Nature is in invention! What birds and beasts haven't I seen there! What flies, butterflies, cockroaches, little bits of beetles!—some like emeralds, others like coral. And what tiny cochineal insects! Why, really, some of them are smaller than a pin's head."
"But did you see the elephant? What did you think it looked like? I'll be bound you felt as if you were looking at a mountain."
"Are you quite sure it's there?"
"Quite sure."
"Well, brother, you mustn't be too hard upon me; but, to tell the truth, I didn't remark the elephant."
[Bulgarine states that Krilof wrote this fable in allusion to the remark of some one, perhaps Prince Viazemsky, that each of the three great fabulists, La Fontaine, Khemnitser, and Dmitrief, bore the name of Ivan,—thus omitting all notice of Ivan Krilof. But the story does not seem to rest on any substantial authority, and it is entirely out of keeping with all the other anecdotes about Krilof, who was remarkably modest and unpretentious.]