The two new storks made haste to approach them, and overheard, to their astonishment, the following conversation. "Good morning, Mrs. Longlegs; you are early on the meadow." "Thank you, dear blatterbeak! I have been getting a little breakfast. Will you take a bit of lizard, or a frog's leg?" "Much obliged, but I have no appetite this morning. I came on to the meadow for quite a different purpose. I am to dance before the guests at my father's to-day, and I thought I would exercise a little in private beforehand." At the same time the young storkess marched about the field making the oddest gesticulations. The caliph and Mansor looked on with wonder. But at last, when she put herself into a picturesque attitude on one foot, and gracefully waved her wings, they could stand it no longer; an inextinguishable laugh burst from their bills, from which they did not recover for some time. The caliph composed himself first. "What a capital joke!" cried he; "I never saw any thing better in my life; it is a pity that the stupid birds were frightened away by our laughter, else she would certainly have sung!" But it now occurred to the grand vizier that they had been forbidden to laugh during their transformation. He communicated his anxiety to the caliph. "By Mecca and Medina!" cried the caliph, "it would be a pretty piece of business if I had to remain a stork all my life! Try think of the stupid word; I can't remember it." "We must bow three times towards the East, and say, Mu--Mu--Mu--." They turned to the East, and bowed away till their beaks touched the ground. But, alas! The magic word had vanished, and with all the caliph's bowing, and his vizier's crying Mu--Mu--, all recollections of it had disappeared from their memories, and the poor Chasid and his vizier still remained storks as before. The caliph and the grand vizier walked in a melancholy mood through the fields, not knowing what to do in their sad plight. They could not get out of their stork-skins, and it would not do for them to go back to the town to tell any one of their condition, for who would believe a stork if he said that he was the caliph? And even if they had believed him, would the inhabitants of Bagdad be willing to have a stork for their caliph? So they sneaked about for several days, feeding upon wild fruits, which, however, they could not manage very well, on account of their long bills. For lizards and frogs, they had no appetite. Their only satisfaction in this sad predicament was that they could fly; and they often flew over on to the roofs in the city of Bagdad, to see what was going on.