observed it and
asked her the cause of her silence; and she answered with a pun on her
name: "Vineyard I was and Vineyard I am, I was loved and no longer am: I
know not for what reason the Vineyard has lost its season." Her husband,
who heard this, replied: "Vineyard thou wast and Vineyard thou art,
loved thou wast and no longer art: the Vineyard has lost its season for
the lion's claw." The king, who understood what he meant, answered: "I
entered the Vineyard, I touched the leaves, but I swear by my crown that
I have not tasted the fruit." Then the steward understood that his wife
was innocent, and the two made peace and always after lived happy and
contented.[25]

* * * * *

This story is found only in the Greek and Hebrew versions of The Seven
Wise Masters, and in the Arabic Seven Viziers. It did not pass into any
of the Occidental versions, although it was known to Boccaccio, who
based on it the fifth novel of the first day of the Decameron. Either,
then, the story is a late adaptation of the Oriental tale, which is
unlikely, or it comes from some now lost, but once popular Italian
version of the Oriental form of The Seven Wise Masters.[26]

The three following stories are found only in the Western, or European
versions of the collection. The first, technically called "_Vaticinium_"
or "The Prophecy," relates that a son who understood the language of
birds heard the prediction that his father and mother should come to
such want that they would not have bread to eat; but that he, the son,
should rise so high that his father should offer him water to wash his
hands with. The father, enraged at this prediction, threw his son into
the sea. He was rescued, and after many adventures, married the daughter
of the king of Sicily. One day, while riding through Messina, he saw his
father and mother, meanly dressed, sitting at the door of an inn. He
alighted from his horse, entered their house, and asked for food. After
his father and mother had brought him water to wash his hands he
revealed himself to them and forgave his father for his cruelty.

The only Italian version, and disfigured by some extraneous details, is
in the Mantuan tales (Visentini, No. 50): "Fortune aid me." Here the son
does not hear the prophecy from the birds, but an angel tells a king,
who has long desired a son, that he shall have one whom he shall one day
serve. When the child was ten years old the king was so vexed b