Of cousins,
Are like a friend in the purse.
Still regard the main chance;
'Tis the clink
Of the chink
Is the music to make the heart dance.

The merchant having protracted his absence many months (Vatsyayana, in
his _Kama Sutra_, says that the man who is given to much travelling does
not deserve to be married), and, his wife chancing to be on the roof of
her house one day when a young foreign prince of handsome appearance
passed by with his attendants, she immediately fell in love with
him--"the battle-axe of prudence dropped from her hand; the vessel of
continence became a sport to the waves of confusion; while the avenues
leading to the fortress of reason remained unguarded, the sugar-cane of
incontinence triumphantly raised its head above the rose-tree of
patience." The prince had also observed the lady, as she stood on the
terrace of her house, and was instantly enamoured of her. He sends an
old woman (always the obliging--"for a consideration"--go-between of
Eastern lovers) to solicit an interview with the lady at his own palace
in the evening, and, after much persuasion, she consents. Arraying her
beauteous person in the finest apparel, she proceeds to the cage, and
first consults the sharak as to the propriety of her purpose. The sharak
forbids her to go, and is at once rewarded by having her head wrung off.
She then represents her case to the parrot, who, having witnessed the
fate of his companion, prudently resolves to temporise with the amorous
dame; so he "quenched the fire of her indignation with the water of
flattery, and began a tale conformable to her temperament, which he took
care to protract till the morning." In this manner does the prudent
parrot prevent the lady's intended intrigue by relating, night after
night, till the merchant returns home from his travels, one or more
fascinating tales, which he does not bring to an end till it is too late
for the assignation.[43]

[43] In a Telugu MS., entitled _Patti Vrutti Mahima_ (the
Value of Chaste Wives), the minister of Chandra Pratapa
assumes the form of a bird owing to a curse pronounced
against him by Siva, and is sold to a merchant named
Dhanadatta, whose son, Kuveradatta, is vicious. The bird
by moral lessons reformed him for a time. They went to a
town called Pushpamayuri, wher