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152 Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha Jaina temple, dwelled upon a great mango tree a devoted pair of parrots. The female was seized by a pregnancy whim 20 for a head of rice which grew in a field belonging to King Crīkānta. When the male pointed out the danger to his own head thru pilfering from the king's field, she chided him for being a coward. Thereupon, in shame, he brought her a head of rice day by day, until the king, noticing the depredation, was told by the watch that the parrot was the culprit. The king told the watch to trap him; the male was caught while the female looked on, and brought before the king. The latter was about to slay the male with his sword, when the female intervened; offered herself in his stead; explained her delicate condition; and pointed out that her mate did not count his life worth a blade of grass by the side of her wish (290). The king, in banter, told the male that he, tho famed for wisdom in the world, 21 was yet enough of a fool to jeopardize his life for the whim of a woman. The female retorted, that a man will abandon father, mother, wealth, etc., but not his wife, just as you, O king, did abandon your own life for the sake of queen Çridevi: how can you then blame the parrot?' The king, surprised at her acquaintance with his history, bade her narrate, to wit (295):
Çridevī, one of the king's wives had consulted a certain nun (rarivrājikā) as to means by which she might become the king's favorite. The nun gave her a philtre to put into the king's drinking water, and taught her a mantra which promptly impelled the king to cite her, in great state, to his presence, hereafter to be treated as chief queen. But, not yet satisfied with this proof of the
> See the additional note 25, on p. 204.
* See my paper, 'On Talking Birds in Hindu Fiction,' in Festgruss an Ernst Windisch, pp. 354 ff.
