Hungry Dogs saw hides in the river. They decided to drink up the river to get to the hides. Silly Dogs; they burst trying.
Attempt not impossibilities.
Aesop For Children
Some hungry Dogs saw a number of hides at the bottom of a stream where the Tanner had put them to soak. A fine hide makes an excellent meal for a hungry Dog, but the water was deep and the Dogs could not reach the hides from the bank. So they held a council and decided that the very best thing to do was to drink up the river.
All fell to lapping up the water as fast as they could. But though they drank and drank until, one after another, all of them had burst with drinking, still, for all their effort, the water in the river remained as high as ever.
Moral
Do not try to do impossible things.
Townsend version
Some dogs famished with hunger saw a number of cowhides steeping in a river. Not being able to reach them, they agreed to drink up the river, but it happened that they burst themselves with drinking long before they reached the hides.
Moral
Attempt not impossibilities.
Canes et Corium
Corium depressum in flumine viderunt canes. Quod, ut extrahere celeriter possent, aquam coeperunt lambere. Sic rupti, perierunt priusquam quod petierant contingere valuissent.
Perry #135
