thereupon, made haste to draw near, and to their
astonishment, heard the following conversation.

"Good-morning, Madam Long-legs; already, so early, upon the pond?"

"Fine thanks, beloved Clatter-beak. I have brought me a little
breakfast. Would you like, perhaps, the quarter of an eider-duck, or a
little frog's thigh?"

"My best thanks, but this morning I have little appetite. I come to
the pond for a very different reason. I have to dance to-day before
the guests of my father, and I wish to practise a little in private."

Immediately, thereupon, the young lady-stork stepped, in great
excitement, over the plain. The Caliph and Mansor looked on her in
amazement. When, however, she stood in a picturesque attitude upon one
foot, and, at the same time, gracefully moved her wings like a fan,
the two could contain themselves no longer; a loud laugh broke forth
from their bills. The Caliph was the first to recover himself. "That
were once a joke," said he, "which gold could not have purchased.
Pity! that the stupid birds should have been driven away by our
laughter; otherwise they would certainly even yet have been singing."

But already it occurred to the Grand-Vizier that, during their
metamorphosis, laughter was prohibited; he shared his anxiety on this
head with the Caliph. "By Mecca and Medina! that were a sorry jest, if
I am to remain a stork. Bethink thyself, then, of the foolish word,
for I can recall it not."

"Three times must we bow ourselves to the East, and at the same time
say, Mu--mu--mu--"

They turned to the East, and bowed so low that their beaks almost
touched the earth. But, O misery! that magic word had escaped them;
and though the Caliph prostrated himself again and again, though at
the same time the Vizier earnestly cried "Mu--mu--," all recollection
thereof had vanished, and poor Chasid and his Vizier were to remain
storks.

CHAPTER III.

The enchanted ones wandered sorrowfully through the fields, not
knowing, in their calamity, what they should first set about. To the
city they could not return, for the purpose of discovering themselves,
for who would have believed a stork that he was the Caliph? or, if he
should find credit, would the inhabitants of Bagdad have been willing
to have such a bird for their master? Thus, for several days, did they
wander around, supporting themselves on the produce of the fields,
which, however, on account of their long bills, they could not readily
p