"I merely (nikan) laughed," the King said. Should he explain and give
the talk to any person the King will die. Because of it he did not
explain and give it. That the King knows the speech of animals he
does not inform anyone.
The royal Queen says, "There is no one who laughs in that way without
a reason. Should you not say the reason I am going away, or having
jumped into a well I shall die."
Thereupon the King, because he was unable to be released from [the
importunity of] the Queen, thought, "Even if I am to die I must
explain and give this."
Thinking thus, he went to give food to the animals. Then it was evident
to those animals that this King is going to die. Out of the party
of animals first a cock says, "His Majesty our King is going to be
lost. We don't want the food. We shall not receive assistance. Unless
His Majesty the King perish thus we shall not perish. In submission to
me there are many hens. When I have called them the hens come. When
I have told them to eat they eat. When I have told them to go they
go. The King, having become submissive in that manner to the thing
that his wife has said, is going to die." The King having heard it,
laughed at it, also.