The Peacock's Wooing

Once on a time, in the first cycle of the worlds history,
the quadrupeds chose the Lion as their king, the fishes
the monster-fish Ananda, and the birds the Golden Mal-
lard 1 . Now the King Golden Mallard had a lovely young
daughter, and her royal father granted her any boon she
might ask. The boon she asked for was to be allowed to
choose a husband for herself; and the king in fulfilment
of his promise mustered all the birds together in the
country of the Himalayas. All manner of birds came,
mallards, peacocks and all other birds; and they flocked
together on a great plateau of bare rock. Then the king
sent for his daughter and bade her go and choose a
husband after her own heart. As she reviewed the crowd
of birds, her eye lighted on the peacock with his neck of
jewelled sheen and tail of varied hue; and she chose him,
saying, " Let this be my husband." Then the assembly
of the birds went up to the peacock and said, "Friend
peacock, this princess, in choosing her husband from
among all these birds, has fixed her choice on you."

Carried away by his extreme joy, the peacock ex-
claimed, " Until this day you have never seen how active
I am " ; and in defiance of all decency in the midst of the
assembly he spread his wings and began to dance ; and
in dancing he exposed himself.

Filled with shame, King Golden Mallard said, "This
fellow has neither modesty within his heart nor decency
in his outward behaviour; I certainly will not give my
daughter to one so shameless." And there in the midst
of all that assembly of the birds, he repeated this stanza :

A pleasing 1 note is yours, a lovely back,

A neck in hue like lapis lazuli;

A fathom's length your outstretched feathers reach.

Withal, your dancing loses you my child.

Right in the face of the whole gathering King Royal
Mallard gave his daughter to a young mallard, a nephew
of his. Covered with shame at the loss of the mallard
princess, the peacock rose straight up from the place and
fled away. And King Golden Mallard too went back to
his dwelling-place.