pon which she boasted that her
father had in his service a youth of great beauty and possessed of every
accomplishment, which excited the king's desire to have him brought to
his court; and the merchant smuggled the youth out of the country of
Irak concealed in a chest, placed on the back of a camel. In
Lescallier's French translation it is said that the youth was the fruit
of a _liaison_ of the princess, unknown to her father; that his
education was secretly entrusted to certain servants; and that the
princess afterwards contrived to introduce the boy to her father, who
was so charmed with his beauty, grace of manner, and accomplishments,
that he at once took him into his service. Thus widely do manuscripts of
the same Eastern work vary!

_The King and his Seven Vazirs._

On the Eighth Night the Parrot relates, in a very abridged form, the
story of the prince who was falsely accused by one of his father's women
of having made love to her, and who was saved by the tales which the
royal counsellors related to the king in turn during seven consecutive
days. The original of this romance is the _Book of Sindibad_, so named
after the prince's tutor, Sindibad the sage: the Arabic version is known
under the title of the _Seven Vazirs_; the Hebrew, _Mishle Sandabar_;
the Greek, _Syntipas_; and the Syriac, _Sindban_; and its European
modifications, the _Seven Wise Masters_. In the Parrot-Book the first to
the sixth vazirs each relate one story only, and the damsel has no
stories (all other Eastern versions give two to each of the seven, and
six to the queen); the seventh vazir simply appears on the seventh day
and makes clear the innocence of the prince. This version, however,
though imperfect, is yet of some value in making a comparative study of
the several texts.

VI

THE TREE OF LIFE--LEGEND OF RAJA RASALU--CONCLUSION.

Many others of the Parrot's stories might be cited, but we shall merely
glance at one more, as it calls up a very ancient and wide-spread
legend:

_The Tree of Life._

A prince, who is very ill, sends a parrot of great sagacity to procure
him some of the fruit of the Tree of Life. When at length the parrot
returns with the life-giving fruit, the prince scruples to eat it, upon
which the wise bird relates the legend of Solomon and the Water of
Immortality: how that monarch declined to purchase immunity from death
on consideration that he should survive all his friends and female
favourite