Story 174 - The Parrot And The Crow

A CROW beginning to roost at the house at which a Parrot roosts, when much time had gone, as those two were talking together the Crow asked the Parrot,

“Friend, what do you eat ?”

Then the Parrot said,

“I eat fruits possessing a good flavour.”

Having said,

“If so, I also must eat the [same] kinds of fruits,”

the Crow went with the Parrot to the midst of the forest. When it was eating fruits for many days, as the Crow was unaccustomed to that food, not having eaten the food [before], it arrived at great privation.

Thereafter, at the time when the Parrot asked at its hand [regarding it], the Crow says,

“This food, indeed, not being customary for me, from somewhere or other having found flesh you must give me it. If not, I shall now eat the flesh of your body,”

it said.

The Parrot said,

“If so, stay there a little until I have sought for flesh and returned,”

and went to seek flesh. Having gone, and walked and walked, being unable to find and take a little flesh from anywhere, it came to the royal house, and when it looked a piece of meat had been hung up in the cooking house.

Having seen it, the Parrot went near the Crow and said,

“Friend, there was not flesh anywhere, only inside the [cooking] house at the royal house a piece of meat has been hung. I will go on the wall and cut the string of the piece of meat. When I cut it you, taking it, fly away.”

The Parrot having gone, cut the string that was tied to the piece of meat. When it was falling on the ground, the Crow, taking the piece of meat, flew away. Having gone it ate it with pleasure.

That day the cooking man, being without meat to cook for the King, went to the King and said,

“There is no meat to cook for you, Sir, to-day. In this manner a Crow took it away.”

Thereupon he told him to seek the Crow and shoot it.

Thereupon this Crow having said,

“This Parrot is better than I for walking and seeking food,”

frightened it, and said that it was better for seeking and bringing meat; and it employed the Parrot, and making it seek meat began to eat [in that way].

Then this Parrot for the purpose of causing this Crow to be killed having settled upon the roof of the house of the man whom [the King] told to shoot and kill that Crow, spoke to him.

The man saying,

“A Parrot that speaks well!”

went to catch it. The Parrot having stayed looking, without going away, until the time when it is caught, said at the hand of the man,

“Should you come with me, I will show and give you the Crow which ate that King’s meat.”

Having said “It is good,” the man went on the ground. The Parrot having gone [through the air] above, remained talking and talking with the Crow. Thereupon the man shot the Crow; the Parrot flew off and went away.

The King asked,

“How did you shoot to-day the Crow that you were unable to shoot for so many days ?”

The man said,

“A Parrot settled on the roof of my houses Having remained there while I went to catch the Parrot, the Parrot said to me,

‘I will show you the place where the Crow is.’

Afterwards, having gone with the Parrot I shot the Crow.”

Thereupon the King, in order to ask the Parrot about these matters, told him to seek the Parrot, and come back. He was unable to find the Parrot.

Central Province