THE SWEET-SCENTED NAME
tion that involved ourselves and our villages in the greatest unhappiness.
O that I had never visited that town! Or that I had not brought with me a child so weak to withstand temptation!
One morning our friend Sarroo said to us: "To-day I will show you the imperial menagerie"—at that time the menagerie might be seen not only by ourselves but by foreigners.
My brother Sin agreed with shouts of pleasure. I, for my part, hesitated, for I had had, the night before, a dream in which I saw a beast of immeasurable power and fierceness, whose roaring was like that of him who dwells in the woods on the other side of the river Mairure. And I did not wish to visit the accursed beast-garden, but I did not like to offend our kind host.
II
First of all we wandered through a park which seemed almost limitless in extent, and we saw a marvellous diversity of birds all shut in cages. We saw gigantic birds with great wings able to carry in their talons fat sheep, and we saw birds almost devoid of wings, but of wonderfully beautiful plumage
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