evidence of former
splendor. Suddenly the Vizier stopped and remarked that if it were not
ridiculous for a stork to be afraid of ghosts, he would feel decidedly
nervous. The Caliph listened, and heard a low moaning and sobbing,
which seemed to come from a room down the passage. He started to rush
toward it, but the Vizier held him fast by a wing. He had retained the
brave heart that he had possessed when a Caliph, however, and freeing
himself from the Vizier's bill, he hurried to the room whence came the
pitiful sounds. The moon shone through a barred window and showed him
a screech owl sitting on the floor of the ruined chamber, lamenting in
a hoarse voice. The Vizier had cautiously stolen up beside the Caliph;
and at sight of the two storks, the screech owl uttered a cry of
pleasure. To their astonishment it addressed them in Arabic, in the
following words:

"I have abandoned myself to despair, but I believe my deliverance is
near, for it was prophesied in my youth that a stork would bring me
good fortune."

The Caliph, thus appealed to, arched his neck most gracefully and
replied:

"Alas! Screech Owl, I fear we are unable to aid you, as you will
understand when you have heard our miserable story."

He then related how the magician, Kaschnur, had changed them into
storks and made his own son ruler of Bagdad. The screech owl became
very much excited and exclaimed:

"How strange that misfortune should have come to us through the
same man. I am Tusa, the daughter of the King of the Indies. The
magician, Kaschnur, came one day to my father, to ask my hand in
marriage for his son Mirza. My father ordered him thrown down
stairs, and in revenge he managed to have me given a powder which
changed me into this hideous shape. He then conveyed me to this
lonely castle, and swore I should remain here until some one asked
me to be his wife, and so freed me from the enchantment."

At the conclusion of her story, the screech owl wept anew and would
not be consoled. Suddenly, however, she wiped her eyes on her wing and
said:

"I have an idea that may lead to our deliverance. Once every month the
magician, Kaschnur, and his companions meet in a large hall at this
castle, where they feast and relate their evil deeds. We will listen
outside the door, and perhaps you may hear the forgotten word. Then,
when you have resumed human form, one of you can ask to marry me, that
I too may be freed from this wretched enchantment; and the