Camaralzaman was astonished at seeing these two birds fighting
with their beaks, and that in a very little while one of them,
fell down dead at the root of a tree; the bird that was
victorious took wing again, and flew away.
In an instant, two other large birds, that had seen the fight at
a distance, came from the other side of the garden, and pitched
on the ground, one at the feet, and the other at the head of the
dead bird: they looked upon it some time, shaking their heads, as
if they were grieved at the death of their departed friend; after
which, digging a grave with their talons, they interred the
defunct.
When they filled up the grave with the earth which they had
turned up to make it, they flew away, and returned in a few
minutes, bringing with them the bird that had committed the
murder, the one holding one of its wings in its beak, and the
other one of its legs; the criminal all the while crying out in a
doleful manner, and struggling to escape. They carried it to the
grave of the bird which it had lately sacrificed to its rage, and
there they made a sacrifice of it to the manes of the dead bird;
and, striking it often with their beaks, at last they killed the
murderer. They then opened its belly, tore out its entrails, left
its body on the place unburied, and flew away.
Camaralzaman remained in great astonishment all the time he stood
beholding this sight: he drew near the tree where this scene had
been acted; and, casting his eyes on the scattered entrails of
the bird that was last killed, he observed something red hanging
out of its body; he took it up, and found it was his beloved
princess Badoura's talisman, which had cost him so much pains and
sorrow, and so many sighs, since the bird snatched it out of his
hand.
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