e young man became very rich. He lived in a
beautiful mansion. All around the house there was a wonderful garden
full of lovely flowers and splendid trees where birds loved to sing
sweet songs and build their nests. In spite of his beautiful home the
young man was not very happy. It was a great trial to have a wife who
was so black. He often walked up and down the paths in his garden at
the close of the day and thought about how beautiful his wife had been
the first time he ever saw her. As he walked in the garden there was
always a pigeon which followed him about. It flew about his head in a
way that annoyed him, so one day when his wife was sick and asked for
a pigeon to be roasted for her dinner he commanded that this
particular pigeon should be killed.

When the cook was preparing the pigeon for her mistress to eat for
dinner she noticed a black speck on the pigeon's breast. She thought
that it was a speck of dirt and tried to brush it away. To her
surprise she could not brush it off easily because it was a pin firmly
embedded in the pigeon's breast. She pulled and pulled but could not
pull it out so she sent for her master to come and see what he could
do to remove it. He at once pulled out the pin and then a wonderful
thing happened. The pigeon was transformed into a beautiful maiden. He
at once recognised her as the same lovely maiden who had sprung forth
from his melon by the fountain and whom he had left hidden in the
tree.

When the young man's black wife learned that her husband had found the
beautiful maiden again after all these years she confessed her deceit
and soon died. The young man married the beautiful maiden who was
still just as beautiful as she was the first time he saw her. They
were very happy together but the wife never forgot about the time she
had been a pigeon.

Up to that time pigeons had been wild birds who built their nests in
the deep forest. The wife often wished that they would build their
nests in her beautiful garden so she had little bird houses built and
set up there.

One day a pigeon, bolder than the rest, flew through the garden and
spied the little bird houses. He moved his family there at once and
told the other pigeons that there were other houses there for them
too. The other pigeons were timid and so they waited to see what
terrible calamity might happen to the bold pigeon and his family, but
not a single unpleasant thing occurred. They were just as happy as
happy cou