Then the Parrot said, "In the house of such and such a woman there is
a statue of Buddha made of wood. You go and prepare a house (chamber)
in it of the kind that I may be inside it. When I have gone inside
it block it up."
Afterwards the Barbet having said "Ha" and come with the Parrot, the
Barbet dug out a house in the statue of the size that the Parrot can
be in it. At the time when the Parrot crept into it, having blocked
it up from the outer side so that they were unable to know the place
where it was dug, the Barbet went away.
After that, when the Parrot was there a considerable time, that woman
every day in the morning and evening having come near the statue,
and said stanzas, and made flower offerings, goes away. The Parrot
every day remains listening.
One day the woman having come and said stanzas, when she was making the
flower offerings the Parrot being inside the statue said, "Now then,
indeed! You are near going to the God-world. Still you have been
unable to do one [really] meritorious act. Just as you are doing
that meritorious act they will take you to the God-world while you
are alive."
Then the woman thought, "After the speaking of the statue, I am indeed
near going to the God-world." Thinking it, she asked, "What is that
meritorious act?"
Then the Parrot said, "Having taken only this statue of Buddha half
a mile (haetaekma) away and placed it there, and put all the other
things in this house, and locked the house up, and sat outside,
and set fire to this house, that indeed is the meritorious act."
After that, the woman having taken the statue of Buddha and placed
it half a mile away, and come back, and put all the other things into
the house, and shut the door of the house, and locked it, the woman,
sitting outside, set fire to the house. While the house is burning the
woman is looking on, having said, "To take me to the God-world they
will come at this very instant, they will come at this very instant."
Then the Parrot, having been inside the statue of Buddha, came out,
and having come flying says to this woman, "Haven't you gone yet to the
God-world? There! Look! It is indeed in the God-world that that fire
is blazing. Thou atest my mouth? For thy eating the mouth of the Parrot
which explained the law-suit, this is what the Parrot did. There!"
Having said [this] the Parrot flew away and went to the flock of
Parrots.
North-western Province.
In Old Deccan Days (M. Frere), p. 118, a woodcutter dreamt that
he married a dancing-girl and gave her a thousand gold muhrs. A
dancing-girl who heard him say this determined to try to get the money
from him, so she claimed him as her husband, demanded it from him,
and took the matter before the Raja. Her friends having supported
her statements the Raja could not decide the case, but a merchant's
clever parrot (Vikrama Maharaja in disguise) gave judgment in favour
of the woodcutter. When the girl afterwards obtained the parrot as a
reward for her dancing, she ordered her maid to cook it. While the
servant went for water after plucking it, the parrot got into the
drain for kitchen refuse, the servant substituted a chicken for it,
and the dancing-girl ate this, jeering meanwhile at the parrot. After
its feathers grew again, it flew off and perched behind the statue
of the deity in a temple. When the girl prayed to be transported
to heaven, the parrot replied, "Your prayer is heard," and told
her to sell everything, give away the money, break down her house,
and return in seven days. She obeyed, and was accompanied by a crowd
when she returned. Then the parrot flew over her head, told her it
was a chicken she ate, and jeered at her. She fell down, dashed her
head on a stone, and died.
In Folk-Tales of the Telugus (G. R. Subramiah Pantulu), p. 17,
a courtesan demanded one hundred pagodas from a Brahmana who had
seen her in a dream. He appealed to the King, who promised to give
her payment. He caused the money to be hung from the top of a post,
and told her to take it out of a mirror placed beneath.
In the Tota Kahani (Small), p. 14, a merchant who had left his parrot
in charge of his house heard on his return from a journey that his
wife had misconducted herself. Thinking the parrot had informed him
she plucked out its feathers and threw it out, pretending the cat had
run off with it. The parrot lived in a tomb at a cemetery on fragments
of food left by travellers. When the merchant drove his wife away she
went to the cemetery, and heard a voice--the parrot's--from a tomb
telling her she should be reconciled to her husband after shaving her
head and fasting for forty days. She did this; the parrot then told
its master the wife's story was true regarding its being eaten by a
cat, and that God had sent it to reconcile the husband and wife. The
husband then brought her home again.
In A. von Schiefner's Tibetan Tales (Ralston), p. 163, when a merchant
who had made a bet of five horses that a courtesan could not induce
him to visit her, stated that he had been with her in a dream,
she claimed the horses. The King was unable to give a decision,
but the Minister's wife settled the matter by allowing her to see
the reflection of the horses at the edge of a sheet of water.
In the same work, p. 172, after the King of Videha had married the
daughter of the King of Pañcala, the latter induced his daughter to
send him a clever parrot that was assisting the former King against
him. He plucked it bare, threw it out of the window, a falcon caught
it, and being promised daily food placed it in a temple, where it got
hid and ordered offerings to be made daily by the King, who thought
this was the deity's voice. When its feathers had grown, it induced the
King, Queen, Prince, and Ministers to come with shaven heads to receive
forgiveness of their sins, and then it flew aloft jeering at them.