Page:Barlaam and Josaphat. English lives of Buddha.djvu/127
VII.c. Man and Bird.
Z. vii.,L. p 83, C.435.
A man caught a nightingale, which promised him three precious pieces of advice if he would let him free. He agreed; whereupon the nightingale said, "Do not attempt the impossible. Regret nothing that is past. Believe no improbable tale." The man then let the nightingale free. He, desiring to test him, cried, "Fool, you little know what treasure you have lost. I have within me a pearl as large as an eagle's egg." The man, full of greed, tried to entice the nightingale within his door again, promising to let her go free. The nightingale said, " Now I see what use you will make of my three pieces of advice. I told you never to regret what was past, and yet you are sorry that you let me go free. I advised you not to try the impossible, and yet you are attempting to get me again within your power. I told you never to trust the improbable tale, and yet you believed me when I said that I had within me a pearl greater than my whole body."
[Occurrences in Barlaam. — In Arab., Georg., Heb., and Gr. , therefore in original.
Indian Original. — Cf. Benfey, Pants, i. 380.
Parallels. — Tutinameh, tr. Iken, vii. 46 ; tr. Rosen, i. 137 (cf. Benfey, I.e.).
Derivates. — Petrus Alfonsi, Disc. cler. xxiii. ; Caxton's Æsop, ed. Jacobs, Alf. vi. ; Gesta, ed. Oesterley, 167; Jacques de Vitry, 28; Nic. Purg., Dial, creat. 100 ; Vartan, Fables, xiii. ; Brolnyard, Summa, M, xi. 78 ; Junior, Scala celi, vii.b. ; Wright, Latin Stories,