Tales of Vampires & Werewolves - Редьярд Джозеф Киплинг

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elephant or the goose.”

      On hearing the parrot’s speech, the king sent for an astrologer, and asked him, “Whom shall I marry?” The wise man, having consulted his art, replied, “Chandravati is the name of the maiden, and your marriage with her will certainly take place.” Thereupon the young Raja, though he had never seen his future queen, became incontinently enamoured of her. He summoned a Brahman, and sent him to King Magadheshwar, saying, “If you arrange satisfactorily this affair of our marriage we will reward you amply“—a promise which lent wings to the priest.

      Be it briefly said, O warrior king-for you think that I am talking fables—that in the days of old, men had the art of making birds discourse in human language. The invention is attributed to a great philosopher, who split their tongues, and after many generations produced a selected race born with those members split. He altered the shapes of their skulls by fixing ligatures behind the occiput, which caused the sinciput to protrude, their eyes to become prominent, and their brains to master the art of expressing thoughts in words.

      But this wonderful discovery, like those of great philosophers generally, had in it a terrible practical flaw The birds beginning to speak, spoke wisely and so well, they told the truth so persistently, they rebuked their brethren of the featherless skins so openly, they flattered them so little and they counselled them so much, that mankind presently grew tired of hearing them discourse. Thus the art gradually fell into desuetude, and now it is numbered with the things that were.

      One day the charming Princess Chandravati was sitting in confidential conversation with her jay. The dialogue was not remarkable, for maidens in all ages seldom consult their confidantes or speculate upon the secrets of futurity, or ask to have dreams interpreted, except upon one subject. At last the princess said, for perhaps the hundredth time that month, “Where, O jay, is there a husband worthy of me?”

      “Princess,” replied Madan-manjari, “I am happy at length to be able as willing to satisfy your just curiosity. For just it is, though the delicacy of our sex—”

      “Now, no preaching!” said the maiden; “or thou shalt have salt instead of sugar for supper.”

      Jays, your Rajaship, are fond of sugar. So the confidante retained a quantity of good advice which she was about to produce, and replied,

      “I now see clearly the ways of Fortune. Raja Ram, king of Bhogavati, is to be thy husband. He shall be happy in thee and thou in him, for he is young and handsome, rich and generous, good-tempered, not too clever, and without a chance of being an invalid.”

      Thereupon the princess, although she had never seen her future husband, at once began to love him. In fact, though neither had set eyes upon the other, both were mutually in love.

      “How can that be, sire?” asked the young Dharma Dhwaj of his father. “I always thought that—”

      The great Vikram interrupted his son, and bade him not to ask silly questions. Thus he expected to neutralize the evil effects of the Baital’s doctrine touching the amiability of parents unlike himself.

      Now, as both these young people (resumed the Baital) were of princely family and well to do in the world, the course of their love was unusually smooth. When the Brahman sent by Raja Ram had reached Magadh, and had delivered his King’s homage to the Raja Magadheshwar, the latter received him with distinction, and agreed to his proposal. The beautiful princess’s father sent for a Brahman of his own, and charging him with nuptial gifts and the customary presents, sent him back to Bhogavati in company with the other envoy, and gave him this order, “Greet Raja Ram, on my behalf, and after placing the tilak or mark upon his forehead, return here with all speed. When you come back I will get all things ready for the marriage.”

      Raja Ram, on receiving the deputation, was greatly pleased, and after generously rewarding the Brahmans and making all the necessary preparations, he set out in state for the land of Magadha, to claim his betrothed.

      In due season the ceremony took place with feasting and bands of music, fireworks and illuminations, rehearsals of scripture, songs, entertainments, processions, and abundant noise. And hardly had the turmeric disappeared from the beautiful hands and feet of the bride, when the bridegroom took an affectionate leave of his new parents—he had not lived long in the house—and receiving the dowry and the bridal gifts, set out for his own country.

      Chandravati was dejected by leaving her mother, and therefore she was allowed to carry with her the jay, Madanmanian. She soon told her husband the wonderful way in which she had first heard his name, and he related to her the advantage which he had derived from confabulation with Churaman, his parrot.

      “Then why do we not put these precious creatures into one cage, after marrying them according to the rites of the angelic marriage (Gandharva-lagana)?” said the charming queen. Like most brides, she was highly pleased to find an opportunity of making a match.

      “Ay! why not, love? Surely they cannot live happy in what the world calls single blessedness,” replied the young king. As bridegrooms sometimes are for a short time, he was very warm upon the subject of matrimony.

      Thereupon, without consulting the parties chiefly concerned in their scheme, the master and mistress, after being comfortably settled at the end of their journey, caused a large cage to be brought, and put into it both their favourites.

      Upon which Churaman the parrot leaned his head on one side and directed a peculiar look at the jay. But Madan-manjari raised her beak high in the air, puffed through it once or twice, and turned away her face in extreme disdain.

      “Perhaps,” quoth the parrot, at length breaking silence, “you will tell me that you have no desire to be married?”

      “Probably,” replied the jay.

      “And why?” asked the male bird.

      “Because I don’t choose,” replied the female.

      “Truly a feminine form of resolution this,” ejaculated the parrot. “I will borrow my master’s words and call it a woman’s reason, that is to say, no reason at all. Have you any objection to be more explicit?”

      “None whatever,” retorted the jay, provoked by the rude innuendo into telling more plainly than politely exactly what she thought; “none whatever, sir parrot. You he-things are all of you sinful, treacherous, deceitful, selfish, devoid of conscience, and accustomed to sacrifice us, the weaker sex, to your smallest desire or convenience.”

      “Of a truth, fair lady,” quoth the young Raja Ram to his bride, “this pet of thine is sufficiently impudent.”

      “Let her words be as wind in thine ear, master,” interrupted the parrot. “And pray, Mistress Jay, what are you she-things but treacherous, false, ignorant, and avaricious beings, whose only wish in this world is to prevent life being as pleasant as it might be?”

      “Verily, my love,” said the beautiful Chandravati to her bridegroom, “this thy bird has a habit of expressing his opinions in a very free and easy way.”

      “I can prove what I assert,” whispered the jay in the ear of the princess.

      “We can confound their feminine minds by an anecdote,” whispered the parrot in the ear of the prince.

      Briefly, King Vikram, it was settled between the twain that each should establish the truth of what it had advanced by an illustration in the form of a story.

      Chandravati claimed, and soon obtained, precedence for the jay. Then the wonderful bird, Madan-manjari, began to speak as follows:—

      I have often told thee, O queen, that before coming to thy feet, my mistress was Ratnawati, the daughter of a rich trader, the dearest, the sweetest, the——

      Here the jay

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