As soon as the princess reached home, she placed the cage in the
garden; and the bird no sooner began to warble than he was surrounded
by nightingales, chaffinches, larks, linnets, goldfinches, and every
species of birds of the country. And the branch of the singing-tree
was no sooner set in the midst of the parterre, a little distance from
the house, than it took root, and in a short time became a large tree,
the leaves of which gave as harmonious a concert as those of the tree
from which it was gathered. A large basin of beautiful marble was
placed in the garden; and when it was finished the princess poured
into it all the yellow-water from the flagon, which instantly
increased and swelled so much that it soon reached up to the edges of
the basin, and afterward formed in the middle a fountain twenty feet
high which fell again into the basin perpetually without running over.
The report of these wonders was presently spread abroad, and as the
gates of the house and those of the gardens were shut to nobody, a
great number of people came to admire them.
Some days after, when the Princes Bahman and Perviz had recovered from
the fatigue of their journey, they resumed their former way of living;
and as their usual diversion was hunting, they mounted their horses
and went for the first time since their return, not to their own
demesne, but two or three leagues from their house. As they pursued
their sport, the Emperor of Persia came in pursuit of game upon the
same ground. When they perceived by the number of horsemen in
different places that he would soon be up, they resolved to
discontinue their chase, and retire to avoid encountering him; but in
the very road they took they chanced to meet him in so narrow a way
that they could not retreat without being seen. In their surprise they
had only time to alight, and prostrate themselves before the emperor.
He stopped and commanded them to rise. The princes rose up, and stood
before him with an easy and graceful air. The emperor, after he had
admired their good air and mien, asked them who they were, and where
they lived.
"Sire," said Prince Bahman, "we are the sons of the late intendant of
your majesty's gardens, and live in a house which he built a little
before he died, till it should please you to give us some employment."
"By what I perceive," replied the emperor, "you love hunting."
"Sire," replied Prince Bahman, "it is our common exercise, and what
none of your majesty's subjects who intend to bear arms in your armies
ought, according to the ancient custom of the kingdom, to neglect."
The emperor, charmed with so prudent an answer, said, "It is so, and I
should be glad to see your expertness in the chase; choose your own
game."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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