intrigue, on the following day the merchant returned, and,
missing the sharak from the cage, inquired its fate of the Parrot, who
straight-way acquainted him of all that had taken place in his absence,
and, according to Kadiri's abridged text, he put his wife to death,
which was certainly very unjust, since the lady's offence was only in
_design_, not in _fact_.[53]

[53] In one Telugu version, entitled _Toti Nama Cat'halu_,
the lady kills the bird after hearing all its tales; and
in another the husband, on returning home and learning
of his wife's intended intrigue, cuts off her head and
becomes a devotee.

* * * * *

It will be observed that the frame of the _Tuti Nama_ somewhat resembles
the story, in the _Arabian Nights_, of the Merchant, his Wife, and the
Parrot, which properly belongs to, and occurs in, all the versions of
the _Book of Sindibad_, and also in the _Seven Wise Masters_; in the
latter a magpie takes the place of the parrot. In my _Popular Tales and
Fictions_ I have pointed out the close analogy which the frame of the
Parrot-Book bears to a Panjabi legend of the renowned hero Raja Rasalu.
In the _Tuti Nama_ the merchant leaves a parrot and a sharak to watch
over his wife's conduct in his absence, charging her to obtain their
consent before she enters upon any undertaking of moment; and on her
consulting the sharak as to the propriety of her assignation with the
young prince, the bird refuses consent, whereupon the enraged dame kills
it on the spot; but the parrot, by pursuing a middle course, saves his
life and his master's honour. In the Panjabi legend Raja Rasalu, who was
very frequently from home on hunting excursions, left behind him a
parrot and a maina (hill starling), to act as spies upon his young wife,
the Rani Kokla. One day while Rasalu was from home she was visited by
the handsome Raja Hodi, who climbed to her balcony by a rope (this
incident is the subject of many paintings in fresco on the panels of
palaces and temples in India), when the maina exclaimed, "What
wickedness is this?" upon which the raja went to the cage, took out the
maina, and dashed it to the ground, so that it died. But the parrot,
taking warning, said, "The steed of Rasalu is swift, what if he should
surprise you? Let me out of my cage, and I will fly over the palace, and
will inform you the instant he appears in sight"; and so she released
the parrot