WHEN the divine assistant intends that he will conduct the object of his resigned servant to success, without his using exertion or endeavours, he prepares for him the necessary means. Of the justice of this observation, the following is a proof. When the parrot, being dispatched from the presence of the prince adorning the musnud of pilgrimage and bestower of dignity on the court of travel, (Jehaundar Sultaun) had expanded the plumes of genius, and, soaring on the wings of search in the air of endeavour, took flight in the path of enquiry, in a short time he reached a forest, the ground of which, from its beautiful greens resembling enamel, smiled with scorn at the verdure of paradise.

In this heaven-like spot were seated two brothers, waiting for an arbi­trator to decide their disputes and adjust their differences. In hopes that some person would appear accidentally and fulfil their wishes, they had their eyes turning to the four points of hope; the reason for which was this.

Among the effects left by their father were four articles; the division of them was the cause of dispute and means of a contention, which could not impar­tially by themselves be decided. The first was an old fakeer’s cloak, stuffed with cotton; the second a corden satchel; the third a collinder’s bowl; and the fourth a pair of wooden clogs: apparently of trifling value, and to sight seeming as the effects of poverty and distress; yet, in fact, the forty treasures of Karoon, in comparison with them, were not worth a lump of clay. From the cloak, all sorts of rare cloths, and the curious manufactures of every region of the world, with the most precious perfumes and essences, could be produced in any quantity desired, and at any time. In the same manner, from the satchel, at the desire of the possessor, came forth unparalleled diamonds of the clearest lustre, the most beautiful pearls, and every precious gem, which under the azure sky, is produced on the face of being, from the ocean and mine. From the bowl, which was full of countless bounty, nay, was a river of divine mercy, issued, without the delay of expecta­tion, at the wish of the owner, all sorts of edibles and drinkables, both common and rare, which the divine purveyor has spread upon his variegated board. The wooden clogs in travelling over the earth, resembled the throne of the blessed Solomon, swifter than the wind. Whoever had them on his feet, if he wished to go from the eastern to the western extremity of the globe, arrived, notwithstanding the distance, to the place desired in the twinkling of an eye.

The parrot when he obtained knowledge of the above circumstances, flut­tered with joy; and then, spreading his wings in the sky of exultation, at one flight conveyed himself to the presence of the prince, and received the honour of an interview. Having given an account of the properties of the curio­sities, and the situation of the young men, he said, “At this crisis, when you have an important business occupying your princely mind, a long journey of great peril and difficulty in agitation, and the point of desire unknown, it is adviseable for your highness to seize by any means these goods, each of which to obtain elsewhere in the whole habitable globe, is without the verge of possibility; for, by their means, you will without trouble reach the country of your beloved. Though in the office of sovereign guardian, to become sullied by the crime of dis­honesty cannot be consistent with the laws of religion or morality; yet, according to the urgency of political exigence and necessity of demand, it cannot be approved by reason to give up such unhoped for divine favours, which solely from the particular bounty of heaven have been sent from the world above.”

The prince, whose bosom fermented with impatience, like new wine in the vessel, on the representation of the wise bird, proceeded to the place without delay, and arrived after travelling three nights and days. The young men, whose eyes had been long stretched on the road of expectation, regarding his arrival as a fortunate event, referred the arbitration of their dispute to him.

The prince considering for a little time, said, “As often as I cast the dice of thought on the tables of con­sideration and contrivance, no better mode occurs than this. I will let fly two arrows from my bow on oppo­site quarters, one east and the other westward, and place the effects in dis­pute at an equal distance between them on the ground. This done, let each of you at the clapping of my hands run to a different point; and whoever soonest brings me an arrow, let him take for his share without hindrance the two things he likes best, leaving the other to his brother.”

This mode they both approved; and all being prepared, ran off to seize their separate arrows; when the prince without delay putting on the cloak, throwing the satchel over his shoulders, fixing the bowl in his girdle, and stepping upon the clogs, wished himself at the city of Meenou Sowaud,* the residence of the princess Bherawir Banou. By permission of the Almighty, to whose omnipotence the most difficult things are easy, he found himself in the twinkling of an eye at the gates of the city, having in an instant, without trouble or danger, passed a distance of many thousand miles, which he could not otherwise have journeyed in years. The propitiously-winged parrot, like the phœnix ominous of prosperity, sitting upon the fortunate head of the prince, also arrived with him.*