"Thank you, dear blatterbeak! I have been getting a little
breakfast. Will you take a bit of lizard, or a frog's leg?"

"Much obliged, but I have no appetite this morning. I came on to the
meadow for quite a different purpose. I am to dance before the
guests at my father's to-day, and I thought I would exercise a
little in private beforehand."

At the same time the young storkess marched about the field making
the oddest gesticulations. The caliph and Mansor looked on with
wonder. But at last, when she put herself into a picturesque
attitude on one foot, and gracefully waved her wings, they could
stand it no longer; an inextinguishable laugh burst from their
bills, from which they did not recover for some time. The caliph
composed himself first. "What a capital joke!" cried he; "I never
saw any thing better in my life; it is a pity that the stupid birds
were frightened away by our laughter, else she would certainly have
sung!"

But it now occurred to the grand vizier that they had been forbidden
to laugh during their transformation. He communicated his anxiety to
the caliph.

"By Mecca and Medina!" cried the caliph, "it would be a pretty piece
of business if I had to remain a stork all my life! Try think of the
stupid word; I can't remember it."

"We must bow three times towards the East, and say, Mu--Mu--Mu--."
They turned to the East, and bowed away till their beaks touched the