Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/300

292 "O gardener of the king, what is the king doing with his Moorish black woman?"

And the gardener that answered:—

"At times he goes singing, at times he goes weeping."

Again the turtle-dove flew away, saying:—

"Wēe—wēe—wēe. Woe is me in the fields all lonely!"

The king, who did not manage to hear this plainly, said to the gardener:—"What was that little bird saying?" The gardener told him what it was saying. Quoth the king:—"It is needful to place on the branch where it is wont to perch a little birdlime, so as to catch it, for at any cost I wish to catch it." The black woman, who saw that the king was talking to the gardener, came up running, and said:—"No! I do not wish it, that fowl does me a great deal of harm." But the king took no heed of what she said.

The next day the turtle-dove came back again, and said to the gardener:—

"O gardener of the king, what is the king doing with his Moorish black woman?"

And the gardener answered:—

"At times he goes singing, at times he goes weeping."

The [turtle-dove] said:—

"Wēe—wēe—wēe. Woe is me in the fields all lonely!"

tried to fly away, and remained stuck to the branch. So the gardener caught hold of it and took it to the king.

The black woman who saw this was at her wit's end, begging the king to send it away flying, for the sight of that fowl would surely make her ill. "Ay!" quoth she, "that fowl is doing me much harm. Take it out of my sight or I shall die!" The king, taking no heed of her, began to caress the turtle-dove, and, stroking its head with his hand, he met with a pin. "Ay!" quoth he, "who can the wretch be who has stuck a pin into the head of this little bird?" The black woman screamed louder and louder that he ought at once to send it away flying, that she could stand it no longer. theThe [sic] king pulled out the pin, and saw that the little bird began to change a good deal; he went on searching and found another and shortly another pin. So he pulled them out, and his most comely