An hour before day, Dinarzade awaked her sister, and says to her,
You will certainly be as good as your word, madam, and finish the
story of the fisherman; to assist your memory, I will tell you where
you left off: it was where the Grecian king maintained the innocence
of his physician Douban against his vizier. I remember it, says
Scheherazade, and am ready to give you satisfaction.
Sir, continues she, addressing herself to Schahriar, what the
Grecian king said about king Sinbad raised the vizier’s curiosity,
who says to him, sir, I pray your majesty to pardon me, if I have
the boldness to ask what the vizier of king Sinbad said to his
master to divert him from cutting off the prince, his son. The
Grecian king had the complaisance to satisfy him: That vizier, says
he, after having represented to king Sinbad, that he ought to
beware, lest on the accusation of a mother-in-law, he should commit
an action which he might afterwards repent of, told him this story.
The Story of the Husband and the Parrot.
A certain man had a beautiful wife, whom he loved so dearly, that he
could scarce allow her to be out of his sight. One day being obliged
to go abroad, about urgent affairs, he came to a place where all
sorts of birds were sold, and there bought a parrot which not only
spoke very well, but could also give an account of every thing that
was done before it. He brought it in a cage to his house, desired
his wife to put it in his chamber, and to take care of it during a
journey he was obliged to undertake; and then went out.
At his return, he took care to ask the parrot concerning what had
passed in his absence, and the bird told him things that gave him
occasion to upbraid his wife. She thought some of her slaves had
betrayed her, but all of them swore they had been faithful to her;
and they all agreed that it must have been the parrot that had told
tales.
Upon this, the wife bethought herself of a way how she might remove
her husband’s jealousy, and at the same time revenge herself on
the parrot, which she effected thus: her husband being gone another
journey, she commanded a slave in the night-time to turn a hand-mill
under the parrot’s cage; she ordered another to throw water, in
form of rain, over the cage; and a third to take a looking-glass,
and turn it to the right and to the left before the parrot by
candle-light. The slaves spent great part of the night in doing what
their mistress commanded them, and acquitted themselves very
dexterously.
Next night the husband returned, and examined the parrot again about
what had passed during his absence. The bird answered, Good master,
the lightning, thunder, and rain, did so much disturb me all night,
that I cannot tell how much I suffered by it. The husband, who knew
that there had been neither thunder, lightning, nor rain, that
night, fancied that the parrot, not having told him the truth in
this, might also have lied to him in the other; upon which he took
it out of the cage, and threw it with so much force to the ground
that he killed it. Yet, afterwards, he understood by his neighbours,
that the poor parrot had not lied to him, when it gave him an
account of his wife’s base conduct, which made him repent he had
killed it. Scheherazade stopped here, because she saw it was day.
All that you tell us, sister, says Dinarzade, is so curious, that
nothing can be more agreeable. I shall be willing to divert you,
answers Scheherazade, if the sultan, my master, will allow me time
to do it. Schahriar, who took as much pleasure to hear the
sultaness, as Dinarzade, rose and went about his affairs, without
ordering the vizier to cut her off.