Indian Antiquary Vol 15

SR No.: 032507
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 446
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 92

76
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
such small sums, as were offered for me to-day I have not been rude. Please do not think me ungrateful for the preservation of my life. If you will wait till to-morrow, and then place me in a nice cage and cover the cage with a pretty cloth, and take me here and there about the palacegrounds, some great and rich person will probably notice the cage, and ask what is inside. It may be that they will also feel sufficient interest in me to inquire my price. If so, then please leave the arrangement of this matter again to me, simply saying that I cost a great deal of money and will declare my own price."
The fowler again acknowledged the wisdom of the parrot's counsel and consented to follow it. And so on the following morning, a beautiful cage and cloth having been procured, the bird was put inside, and carried about by the fowler within the precincts of the palace grounds.
Now the king of that country had several wives, but they were all barren except one, by whom a little daughter had been born to him. This daughter grew up to be so good and beautiful that His Majesty loved her very much. He cared not to be absent from her, and there was not a request of hers, that he did not try to fulfil to the utmost of his power. One day she had expressed a wish to have a bird which could speak, and so thenceforth the king had inquired diligently for such a bird. The fowler's visit therefore was most opportune.
While the fowler was perambulating before the palace the chief Wazir passed by. The fowler gave him a most profound salám. The parrot, also, gave him a salám, imagining that some great personage was near. When the Wazir heard the salám from the cage he was much surprised. "How strange!" he said; "Please remove the cloth that I may see the bird, which can do this wonderful thing."
The fowler did so; and the Wazir was more struck with the beauty of the parrot than with its cleverness, and offered to purchase it at any price. According to the previous arrangement the parrot at once named the price: "Eighteen thousand rupees!"
"What! Eighteen thousand rupees; " said the astonished Wazir,
[MARCH, 1886.
"Yes; Eighteen thousand rapees;" the parrot again replied.
"Then I cannot buy you," said the Wazir; "but my lord the king wishes to have a speaking bird like you. So you will please be carried to him. "
The parrot consented, and so on reaching the front entrance of the palace the Wazir took the cage, and went inside with it. After making his obeisance he placed the cage before the king, saying that at last he thought His Majesty had obtained his long-felt desire. As soon as the cage was set before the king, the bird most distinctly said, "Salám." This greatly astonished the king, who anxiously inquired whence the Wazir had obtained such a clever and magnificent bird. "It is the very bird that I have been wanting for a long time," he added. "You must sell it to me. Ask what you like, and I will give it you."
The Wazir replied, "It is not mine, O king. I met a poor fowler carrying it about the palace-grounds, and knowing that Your Majesty had need of such a bird, I first tried to buy it; but finding that its price was more than I could afford, I ordered the man to bring it hither. With Your Majesty's leave I will call in the man."
The king ordered the fowler to be brought in, and when he appeared, he asked him to sell the parrot. "Tell me its price and you shall have it," he said.
"My lord," tremblingly answered the man, "I cannot tell the worth of the bird. I only know that it was bought for a large sum of money. Let the king's will be. The bird will state its own worth."
Then the king turned towards the parrot and inquired its price; whereupon the parrot answered as before, "Eighteen thousand rapees!"
"Eighteen thousand rupees!" said the king with a much astonished air. "Too much, too much. Surely you are joking with me."
He tried to bargain for a less sum, but the parrot was as resolute concerning its price as the king was resolute concerning its purchase. Accordingly eighteen thousand rupees were paid to the fowler, and the parrot was carried in its beautiful cage to the king's only and beloved daughter.
The fowler was now a rich man. What a wind-fall! Eighteen thousand rupees all in