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Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

565. THE CAMEL IN THE RIVER
Perry 321 (Babrius 40)

As the humpbacked camel was crossing a swift-flowing river, she relieved herself. Then, when she saw her excrement floating out in front of her, the camel remarked, 'Oh, this is a bad business indeed: the thing that should have stayed behind has now moved up to the front!'

Note: An epimythium probably added by a later editor reads: 'Someone could tell this Aesop's fable about a city where it is not the first-class citizens who rule, but people who are of the lowest order.'

Source: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.