Story of the Confectioner, his Wife, and the Parrot.

Once upon a time there dwelt in Egypt a confectioner who had a wife famed for beauty and loveliness; and a parrot which, as occasion required, did the office of watchman and guard, bell and spy, and flapped her wings did she but hear a fly buzzing about the sugar.  This parrot caused abundant trouble to the wife, always telling her husband what took place in his absence.  Now one evening, before going out to visit certain friends, the confectioner gave the bird strict injunctions to watch all night and bade his wife make all fast, as he should not return until morning.  Hardly had he left the door than the woman went for her old lover, who returned with her and they passed the night together in mirth and merriment, while the parrot observed all.  Betimes in the morning the lover fared forth and the husband, returning, was informed by the parrot of what had taken place; whereupon he hastened to his wife’s room and beat her with a painful beating.  She thought in herself, “Who could have informed against me?” and she asked a woman that was in her confidence whether it was she.  The woman protested by the worlds visible and invisible that she had not betrayed her mistress; but informed her that on the morning of his return home, the husband had stood some time before the cage listening to the parrot’s talk.  When the wife heard this, she resolved to contrive the destruction of the bird.  Some days after, the husband was again invited to the house of a friend where he was to pass the night; and, before departing, he enjoined the parrot with the same injunctions as before; wherefore his heart was free from care, for he had his spy at home.  The wife and her confidante then planned how they might destroy the credit of the parrot with the master.  For this purpose they resolved to counterfeit a storm; and this they did by placing over the parrot’s head a hand-mill (which the lover worked by pouring water upon a piece of hide), by waving a fan and by suddenly uncovering a candle hid under a dish.  Thus did they raise such a tempest of rain and lightning, that the parrot was drenched and half-drowned in a deluge.  Now rolled the thunder, then flashed the lightning; that from the noise of the hand-mill, this from the reflection of the candle; when thought the parrot to herself, “In very sooth the flood hath come on, such an one as belike Noah himself never witnessed.”  So saying she buried her head under her wing, a prey to terror.  The husband, on his return, hastened to the parrot to ask what had happened during his absence; and the bird answered that she found it impossible to describe the deluge and tempest of the last night; and that years would be required to explain the uproar of the hurricane and storm.  When the shopkeeper heard the parrot talk of last night’s deluge, he said:  “Surely O bird, thou art gone clean daft!  Where was there,