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240 The man put the head and heart on a spit and gave them to one of his children to roast before the fire.

Whilst the stranger was engaged in conversation with the man and his wife, the rest of the children assembled round the fire to see how the roasting was getting on, and being very hungry, one of them ate the head and the other the heart, and then ran away. Soon afterwards the stranger approached the fire to see whether the head and heart were sufficiently roasted to be eaten, and when he saw what had happened, he smote his forehead and began loudly to complain, not so much on account of the hundred sequins which he had paid for the bird, but that he had been cheated and had lost his luck in this as well as in the next world; and thus lamenting he went away.

On the following morning, when the two boys awoke, there lay under the head of him who had eaten the heart of the little bird one hundred sequins, and the boy who had eaten the head told his father and mother what was taking place all over the world, and even what the kings were thinking about. Thus it happened every morning: the first found always a hundred sequins under his head, and the second knew what was thought and done in the whole world. By this means the brothers became very rich, and at last they bribed the people to elect one of them for their king: the people's choice fell