But the young man would not be comforted. He bethought him of Prince Hassan’s garden, and, next day, he set out to see if haply the bird had gone back to the scarlet cannas and the fresh grass growing by the lakes. He had no sooner entered than he saw him in his accustomed place. “Friend!” he cried, “this is a sorry trick you have played me! My heart has despaired, and the voice of the crier, searching the bazaar with beat of drum, has not ceased since yesterday morning!” “One day longer and he would have found my skin in the butcher’s shop,” replied the Pelican. And he related everything that had happened. The young man was so enraged at what he heard that he beat the grass with his staff till the sods flew. “When I get home,” said he, “I will hire a house in a different street for my mother, and she shall abide there; and when I meet the butcher, I will make every bone in his body ache.” “That is right,” said the Pelican, enjoying the thought. “It is; and I will do it,” said the young man; “but oh! where is the beautiful one? Her eyes were like stars shining on the Nile, and her mouth like the canna-flowers. When she walked, her passing was as the wind in the lebbek-tree, and when she drew her veil across her face, it was as though a trail of river-mist crossed the moon.” And he wept bitterly, making many holy vows that, when he had found her, he would marry her, taking none other to wife. The Pelican was much moved. “Through silence everything is heard,” said he, “and by waiting everything is attained. May the young Pelicans laugh at my pouch if I do not find her for you yet again.” Now it chanced, very soon, that Prince Hassan, with all the beauties of his harem, returned to the palace which had stood empty more than a year. Among the ladies was one who surpassed all the others, and with whom Prince Hassan was deeply in love. One day, while walking in the garden, she fell into conversation with the Pelican, becoming so much charmed with his polite manners and sentiments that she would spend some time daily in his company. “My lord,” she said to Prince Hassan, “I beg of you to come with me into the garden and divert yourself with the conversation of the Pelican who lives there. He is the most wonderful bird, and he assures me that he knows the whole of the Koran by heart.” When the Prince was made acquainted with the bird he commended the lady’s wit in discovering such a companion, and he gave orders that nothing he desired should be denied him. But, in spite of the honour paid him, the Pelican never ceased to think of the young man in yellow and the melon girl, and to wonder how he could bring them together.