THE STORY OF THE HUSBAND AND PARROT.
A certain man had a fair wife, whom he loved so dearly that he
could scarcely 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, prayed his wife to put it in the 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 glass, and turn it to the right and to the left before the
parrot, so as the reflections of the candle might shine on its
face.
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