The King and his Seven Vazirs.

On the Eighth Night the Parrot relates, in a very abridged form, the story of the prince who was falsely accused by one of his father’s women of having made love to her, and who was saved by the tales which the royal counsellors related to the king in turn during seven consecutive days.  The original of this romance is the Book of Sindibad, so named after the prince’s tutor, Sindibad the sage:  the Arabic version is known under the title of the Seven Vazirs; the Hebrew, Mishle Sandabar; the Greek, Syntipas; and the Syriac, Sindban; and its European modifications, the Seven Wise Masters.  In the Parrot-Book the first to the sixth vazirs each relate one story only, and the damsel has no stories (all other Eastern versions give two to each of the seven, and six to the queen); the seventh vazir simply appears on the seventh day and makes clear the innocence of the prince.  This version, however, though imperfect, is yet of some value in making a comparative study of the several texts.

VI

THE TREE OF LIFE—­LEGEND OF RAJA RASALU—­CONCLUSION.

Many others of the Parrot’s stories might be cited, but we shall merely glance at one more, as it calls up a very ancient and wide-spread legend: 

The Tree of Life.

A prince, who is very ill, sends a parrot of great sagacity to procure him some of the fruit of the Tree of Life.  When at length the parrot returns with the life-giving fruit, the prince scruples to eat it, upon which the wise bird relates the legend of Solomon and the Water of Immortality:  how that monarch declined to purchase immunity from death on consideration that he should survive all his friends and female favourites.  The prince, however, having suspicions regarding the genuineness of the fruit, sends some trusty messengers to “bring the first apple that fell from the Tree of Existence.”  But it happened that a black serpent had poisoned it by seizing it in his mouth and then letting it drop again.  When the messengers return with the fruit, the prince tries its effect on an old pir (holy man), who at once falls down dead.  Upon seeing this the prince doomed the parrot to death, but the sagacious bird suggested that, before the prince should execute him for treason, he should himself go to the Tree of Life, and make another experiment with its fruit.  He does so, and on returning home gives part of the fruit to an old woman, “who, from age and infirmity had not stirred abroad for many years,” and she had no sooner tasted it than she was changed into a blooming beauty of eighteen!—­Happy, happy old woman!

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