THE PEACOCK
[Dominating the tumult.] Consummately Arabian Nights.

THE GUINEA-HEN
Did you hear?  Consummately Arabian Nights!

ALL THE HENS
To be sure!  Awfully Arabian Nights!

THE PEACOCK
Kamaralzaman himself is hardly more so.

THE MAGPIE
Bantam Cock with ruffles!

THE GUINEA-HEN [Transported.] How eighteenth century this is!  Look, oh, look!  A dwarf!  A dwarf!  Dwarfs!  Little cunning bits of dwarfs!

THE YOUNG GUINEA-COCK
[Low.] Mamma, do control yourself!

THE GUINEA-HEN [Screaming in the midst of the COCKS.] No, no, I can’t and won’t!  That is Kamaralzaman!  I don’t really know which I prefer, which I—­

THE MAGPIE
Guelder Cock!

THE GUINEA-HEN
[Rushing to the newcomer.] This is truly a treat!  Another Belgian!

THE MAGPIE
Serpent-necked Cock!

THE GUINEA-HEN
[Rattled.] To you, dear Seacock, I owe this Perpentneck!

THE MAGPIE
Duck-sided Cock!  Crow-billed Cock!  Hawk-footed Cock!

THE GUINEA-HEN [Who has fallen upon the new arrivals, bursts into shrill volubility before the last of them.] This surpasses all!  An albino!  Charmed, my dear sir, honoured, enchanted!  Oh, on his head he wears a cheese!

A HEN
So he does, a cheese!—­A cream cheese, to be sure!  A cream cheese!

ALL THE HENS
A cream cheese!

THE MAGPIE
Crève Coeur Cock!

THE GUINEA-HEN
[Rushing to meet him.] Oh, he has horns on his head!

THE PEACOCK
Satanic.

THE MAGPIE
Ptarmigan Cock!

THE PEACOCK
Aesthetic.

THE GUINEA-HEN
[Rushing up to him.] Oh, he wears on his head an Assyrian helmet!

THE MAGPIE
White Pile—­

THE GUINEA-HEN [Rushing up to him.] He wears on his head—­[Stopping short at sight of his docked comb.] Nothing whatever.  He wears nothing whatever on his head.  How odd it looks!

THE CAT [From his apple tree, to the BLACKBIRD, indicating the WHITE PILE GAME-COCK.] There is the champion.  The dust conceals a razor on his lean foot. [The GAME-COCK disappears among the throng of fancy COCKS, who are surrounded by a swarm of cackling HENS.]

THE MAGPIE
Negro Cock!

THE GUINEA-HEN [Gone quite mad among the multitude of COCKS now filling the kitchen-garden with their extraordinary head-gear aigrettes, and plumes and helmets, double and triple combs.] Charmed, honoured, enchanted—­enchanted, honoured, charmed!

PATOU
She has taken leave of her wits!

THE GUINEA-HEN
[To the empty air.] Charmed, charmed, enchanted, en—­

THE MAGPIE
Cock with Supernumerary Toe!—­Naked-necked Cock!

THE GUINEA-HEN
Naked?

THE MAGPIE
Necked!