wn by the lakes and the pools, and walked by the
margin of the water, that they might admire themselves as it were in a
glass. And the queen of the hoopoes gave herself airs, and sat upon a
twig; and she refused to speak to the merops her cousin, and the other
birds who had been her friends, because they were but vulgar birds, and
she wore a crown of gold upon her head.

Now there was a certain fowler who set traps for birds; and he put a
piece of a broken mirror into his trap, and a hoopoe that went in to
admire itself was caught. And the fowler looked at it, and saw the
shining crown upon its head; so he wrung off its head, and took the
crown to Issachar, the son of Jacob, the worker in metal, and he asked
him what it was. So Issachar, the son of Jacob, said, "It is a crown of
brass." And he gave the fowler a quarter of a shekel for it, and desired
him, if he found any more, to bring them to him, and to tell no man
thereof. So the fowler caught some more hoopoes, and sold their crowns
to Issachar, the son of Jacob; until one day he met another man who was
a jeweller, and he showed him several of the hoopoes' crowns. Whereupon
the jeweller told him that they were of pure gold; and he gave the
fowler a talent of gold for four of them.

Now when the value of these crowns was known, the fame of them got
abroad, and in all the land of Israel was heard the twang of bows and
the whirling of slings; bird-lime was made in every town; and the price
of traps rose in the market, so that the fortunes of the trap-makers
increased. Not a hoopoe could show its head but it was slain or taken
captive, and the days of the hoopoes were numbered. Then their minds
were filled with sorrow and dismay, and before long few were left to
bewail their cruel destiny.

At last, flying by stealth through the most unfrequented places, the
unhappy king of the hoopoes went to the court of King Solomon, and stood
again before the steps of the golden throne, and with tears and groans
related the misfortunes which had happened to his race.

So King Solomon looked kindly upon the king of the hoopoes, and said
unto him, "Behold, did I not warn thee of thy folly, in desiring to have
crowns of gold? Vanity and pride have been thy ruin. But now, that a
memorial may remain of the service which thou didst render unto me, your
crowns of gold shall be changed into crowns of feathers, that ye may
walk unharmed upon the earth." Now when the fowlers saw that the h