Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/61

 "Let an irrational animal be brought to me here so I will show it all to you." Hence, the Emperor immediately ordered to find a sparrow, and gave it to the philosopher, who drowned it, and threw it to the ground. In a soft voice he spoke a few words over it, after which he immediately fell dead to the ground, and the revived sparrow began to fly about the room, where they were and after a good long time, it returned to the dead body of the philosopher, and sang over him until he was resuscitated while the sparrow remained dead there, as before. The Emperor endlessly admired this demonstration, and, just like the philosopher, he ardently desired to learn such a secret. He affectionately asked the philosopher, who did not know whether he could refuse to reveal it to him in its entirety.

Then after he had mastered the secret of the mystery, almost every day he had a bird brought, killed it, and as his spirit passed into it, his own dead body was left for dead. And after he had amused himself as much as he liked, he resuscitated himself by returning his spirit to his body again while leaving the bird dead.

And with this skill he discovered the inner thoughts of many of his vassals, and he punished the wicked and rewarded the good with many gifts and kept his Kingdom in supreme tranquility.

His counselor started to become aware of this matter, and knowing how dear he was to his Prince, he discussed with him one day how skilled he had become in this art, as he happened to tell him