’siller’—­Fr. ‘l’argent’] is handsome; the sun never shines on the inauspicious man without money."[42] Before leaving home the merchant purchased at great cost in the bazaar a wonderful parrot, that could discourse eloquently and intelligently, and also a sharak, a species of nightingale, which, according to Gerrans, “imitates the human voice in so surprising a manner that, if you do not see the bird, you cannot help being deceived”; and, having put them into the same cage, he charged his spouse that whenever she had any matter of importance to transact she should first obtain the sanction of both birds.

[42] “He that has money in the scales,” says Saadi, “has
strength in his arms, and he who has not the command of
money is destitute of friends in the world.”—­Hundreds
of similar sarcastic observations on the power of wealth
might be cited from the Hindu writers, such as:  “He who
has riches has friends; he who has riches has relations;
he who has riches is even a sage!” The following
verses in praise of money are, I think, worth
reproducing, if only for their whimsical arrangement: 

Honey,
Our Money
We find in the end
Both relation and friend;
’Tis a helpmate for better, for worse. 
Neither father nor mother,
Nor sister nor brother,
Nor uncles nor aunts,
Nor dozens
Of cousins,
Are like a friend in the purse. 
Still regard the main chance;
’Tis the clink
Of the chink
Is the music to make the heart dance.

The merchant having protracted his absence many months (Vatsyayana, in his Kama Sutra, says that the man who is given to much travelling does not deserve to be married), and, his wife chancing to be on the roof of her house one day when a young foreign prince of handsome appearance passed by with his attendants, she immediately fell in love with him—­“the battle-axe of prudence dropped from her hand; the vessel of continence became a sport to the waves of confusion; while the avenues leading to the fortress of reason remained unguarded, the sugar-cane of incontinence triumphantly raised its head above the rose-tree of patience.”  The prince had also observed the lady, as she stood on the terrace of her house, and was instantly enamoured of her.  He sends an old woman (always the obliging—­“for a consideration”—­go-between of Eastern lovers) to solicit an interview with the lady at his own palace in the evening, and, after much persuasion, she consents.  Arraying her beauteous person in the finest apparel, she proceeds to the cage, and first consults the sharak as to the propriety of her purpose.  The sharak forbids her to go, and is at once rewarded by having her head wrung off.  She then represents her case to the parrot, who, having witnessed the fate of his companion, prudently resolves to temporise with the amorous dame; so he “quenched the fire of her indignation with the water of flattery, and began a tale conformable to her temperament, which he took care to protract till the morning.”  In this manner does the prudent parrot prevent the lady’s intended intrigue by relating, night after night, till the merchant returns home from his travels, one or more fascinating tales, which he does not bring to an end till it is too late for the assignation.[43]