could tell you the whole truth. But these days are not the days for truth. One of us told the truth, and now his head lies here, and his body there." When the King saw the mina bird all ruffled and headless, he picked up the body, and took it in to the Queen. "Look! I left the mina whole and well. How is this?" She answered, "It was killed by the parrot. Ask her. She dares not deny it." And she cast a threatening look at her. But the parrot said, "Perhaps it was so—I may have killed the mina — but did the King ever hear of such a thing in the world?" At the same time, the parrot pointed her claw ominously towards the Queen, to signify that she had killed the mina herself.
Then the King, restraining his rage and grief, cried, "Enough! Go, Ráni, and see to the venison which is preparing in the cook-house, and bake me my bread." And he sat down, sullen and moody, by the well.
When the Queen appeared with the smoking flesh and the cakes of bread she laid them down on the masonry, and the King said to her, "Come, let us eat together once more." Like a woman, quite forgetful of her faults, she accepted his apparent kindness, and her spirits rose; but men are different, they nurse their thoughts and keep their suspicions warm. Then the King put some of the bread to his lips, and said, "To-day my bread is tasteless." But the Queen said, "What food, dear heart, have you brought me here? Methinks no venison was ever so dainty and sweet as this." Pushing his bread away from him the King replied:
"What food is this so dainty sweet?
Alive he languished at your feet.
Now dead and gone, he pleases still—
You eat his flesh—nay, eat your fill!
But O may she whose heart is proved untrue,
Ascend the funeral pile, and perish too!"
The bit dropped from the unhappy Queen's mouth as she said to herself, "Ah, I am betrayed, I am betrayed; he knows all! All is over!" Then she answered her lord with something of pride and defiance—
"When getting up, you vex me sore.
When sitting down, you taunt me more;
But ah? with him, for whom you torture me.
My life, my soul, with him my death shall be!"
