"The Beaver" 

 The beaver is a four-footed animal who lives in pools.  A beaver's 
genitals serve, it is said, to cure certain ailments.  So when the beaver 
is spotted and pursued to be mutilated - since he knows why he is being 
hunted - he will run for a certain distance, and he will use the speed of 
his feet to remain intact.  But when he sees himself about to be caught, 
he will bite off his own parts, throw them, and thus save his own life. 

 /Among men also, those are wise who, if attacked for their money, will 
sacrifice it rather than lose their lives./ 

NOTE: It was believed in antiquity that the valued secretion /castorea/ 
was obtained from the beaver's scrotum, hence 'biting off his own parts' 
in the fable.  We now know that the secretion is found in two separate 
sacs and not actually in the scrotum. 


From "AEsop: The Complete Fables", translated by Robert and Olivia 
Temple, published by the Penguin Group, 1998.