A GNAT came and said to a Lion, "I do not least fear you, nor you are stronger than I am.
For in what does your strength consist? You can scratch with your claws and bite with your teeth an a woman.
I repeat that I am altogether more powerful than you; and if you doubt it, let us fight and see who wins the match."
The Gnat, having sounded his horn, fastened himself upon the Lion and stung him on the nostrils and the parts of the face which is hairless.
While trying to crush him, the Lion tore himself with his claws, until he punished himself severely.
The Gnat thus prevailed over the Lion, and, buzzing about in a song of triumph, flew away.
But shortly afterwards he became entangled in the meshes of a cobweb and was eaten by a spider.
He greatly lamented his fate, saying, "Woe is me! that I, who can wage war successfully with the hugest beasts, should perish myself from this spider, the most inconsiderable of insects!"