Darius The Great (King of Persian) was invading Scythia and demanding Scythia to send him gifts of earth and water. The Scythia king sent him a bird, a mouse , a frog, and five arrows.
Darius The Great thought that the Scythians were surrendering with objects as symbols of earth and water: a mouse was born of the earth while a frog lived in water, and a bird was like nothing so much as a horse. As for the arrows, they were only tokens of Scythian valour.
What the King of Scythia was really saying was this : "Unless you should become birds and fly away up into the sky, or become mice and burrow down into the earth, or become frogs and leap into the lakes, you will never make it home - for you will be shot down by our arrows.
Darius's 700,000 Persian troops never defeated Scythia.
It's imperative not to misread the messages one received.