WHEN the prince, devoted to despair, like Mujjenou, at the despotic command of cruel love, who in every quarter holds the hearts of illustrious monarchs enchained in the locks of moon-faced Venus-browed damsels, and dependant as Harut* in the well of their dimples, like the gul Peaddeh,* with­drawing his mind from the garden of repose, mounted the steed of toil; hav­ing advanced his foot in the path of labour, and regarding as light the diffi­culties of the desart, he in a short time measured a considerable distance, and, like the moon, with unceasing velocity, in a few days travelled over a long space. At length, a broad lake opposed his progress, the opposite shore of which, like the boundary of grief for a lover’s absence, was undiscernible. Such was the raging of the waves, that even the fish fainted at their fury, and the rocks were divided by the force of the dashing surges. As, without a vessel, to cross this red sea-resembling ocean, was out of the circle of possibility, the prince (his lip parched in the road of search, his heart anxious for the fountain of love, and who wished to borrow wings from the roamers of the air, and, soaring like them, to reach the desired country) now became depressed, and from excess of despair began to gasp like a fish on the strand.

The parrot, who in the firmament of friendship soared on the wings of sincerity, was vexed in heart at his affliction, and said, “O thou wanderer in the wilderness of toil, and lost in the maze of pilgrimage, now that thou art thyself confined in the iron cage of distress, and captivated in the mournful snare of love, to keep me still imprisoned is not adviseable. Nay, it is even politic that, approv­ing not of the confinement of a faultless and sincere slave, such as I am, having loosened the chains from my wings, thou shouldst liberate me from this iron fortress,* that I may spread the plumes of endeavour, and fly to all quarters in search of a remedy for thy case, until I may grasp the tablet of desire in my talons. Possibly, the difficulty-opening key may come to hand, and thy search reach its object.”

The prince replied, “Ah! my sym­pathising friend, thou knowest that, in this distressful journey, what alone can support my heart and for an instant lighten my sorrows, is thy company and conversation. I dread, lest when freed from thy cage, and roaming on the wings of liberty in the air, the love of thy fellow-parrots should seduce thee from thy attachment to me, and the instinct of desire towards thy natural friends and fellows, speaking the same language, divest thy mind of inclination to associate with me. If so, the pain of thy desertion will be added to my afflictions and trouble.”

The parrot answered; “Though certainly the assertion of a poor bird like me is not in general deserving confidence, (and indeed, to expect return from a liberated songster is not the maxim of the prudent;) yet, know and consider, that the depictor of the volume of contrivance, has not drawn all objects similar in this plan of creation; nor has the Mani of omniscience in the arzung of beings, sketched with the pencil of design all his portraits after the same likeness. However, praise be to God, who has molded the composition of this humble soarer from the clay and water of constancy, and planted nothing in the tillage of my mind, (who am at best only an handful of feathers) but the seed of fidelity.

“I promise solemnly to your high­ness, that until you attain from the ocean of search the pearl of your desires, and acquire the object of your wishes, I will not leave your gracious presence; but, incessantly stretching the wings of endeavour in faithful service, will regard the approbation of your heart as the mean of gaining the applause of my creator.

“If the skirt of my declaration should prove interested, may the divine power, who created parrots with green vesture and red bills, in the judgment of the resurrection, cause me to rise again accursed and black as the raven! and may he, in this present confined state of existence, render me tormented in the claws of the blood-shedding and executioner-like cat. No other reason for these declarations pervades my heart, but sincere wishes and anxiety for thy welfare. My earnest desire is, that having been the source of important advantage, I may satisfy the claims of thy bounty upon me.”

The prince, regarding the professions of the wise bird as worthy of credit, released him from his cage, and said;

The parrot instantly soared aloft, and skimming through the air, glanced his eye over every quarter of the coun­try. At length he perceived a cottage, lowly like the minds of the humble, and small like the eyes of the Tartars. He alighted on the branch of a tree near it, wishful to know who was the owner, and why he had chosen his habitation in such a wilderness. He beheld a hut formed of reeds, the door of it expanded like the forehead of the virtuous, and its inside clean as the minds of the innocent. Within, sat an old man, bowed down with age, reposing in an ashy coloured vest, like the devoted to contemplation of the Divinity and searchers of religious truth. He had spread the sujjadeh of abstinence, and was employed with all fervour and devotion in the Tusbah and Taleel.* The glow of sin­cerity shone upon his brow, and the light of true knowledge beamed upon his open front. His heart was delivered from the blandishments of the world. A white beard round his expressive countenance, appeared as shining rays about the sun; and from his ashy-stained forehead* the light of truth darted as a lamp from the veil of a shade.*