ate creature under the sun,
because of his vast wealth. But really, what with anxiety about his
riches and being weary of everything, and always desiring something he
had not, he never knew a moment's real happiness. Even now he had come
out of his palace, which was large and splendid enough for fifty kings,
weary and cross because he could find nothing new to amuse him. The
Fowler thought that this would be a favourable opportunity for offering
him the marvellous bird, which he felt certain he would buy the instant
he saw it. And he was not mistaken, for when Badi-al-Zaman took the
lovely prisoner into his own hands, he saw written under its right wing
the words, 'He who eats my head will become a king,' and under its left
wing, 'He who eats my heart will find a hundred gold pieces under his
pillow every morning.' In spite of all his wealth he at once began to
desire the promised gold, and the bargain was soon completed. Then the
difficulty arose as to how the bird was to be cooked; for among all his
army of servants not one could Badi-al-Zaman trust. At last he asked the
Fowler if he were married, and on hearing that he was he bade him take
the bird home with him and tell his wife to cook it.

[Illustration]

'Perhaps,' said he, 'this will give me an appetite, which I have not had
for many a long day, and if so your wife shall have a hundred pieces of
silver.'

The Fowler with great joy ran home to his wife, who speedily made a
savoury stew of the Yellow Bird. But when Badi-al-Zaman reached the
cottage and began eagerly to search in the dish for its head and its
heart he could not find either of them, and turned to the Fowler's wife
in a furious rage. She was so terrified that she fell upon her knees
before him and confessed that her two children had come in just before
he arrived, and had so teased her for some of the dish she was preparing
that she had presently given the head to one and the heart to the other,
since these morsels are not generally much esteemed; and Badi-al-Zaman
rushed from the cottage vowing vengeance against the whole family. The
wrath of a rich man is generally to be feared, so the Fowler and his
wife resolved to send their children out of harm's way; but the wife, to
console her husband, confided to him that she had purposely given them
the head and heart of the bird because she had been able to read what
was written under its wings. So, believing that their children's
fortunes were made, t