except for old Greeks and modern babies! You will never meet with
any sirens or harpies, nor will you ever see again the Princess
of whom you talk, unless, indeed, in your dreams. It is this country
that is the only real one, there is nothing at all beyond the sunset."

Now, all this time the little bird which the Princess had given
to him was singing quite loudly under the folds of the traveler's
cloak. And he took it out and showed it to the youths who spoke
with him, and said, "This bird was given me by the Princess whom
you declare to be a myth. How could a myth give me this living
bird?" They answered, "You are surely a madman as well as a dreamer.
Doubtless the bird flew into your chamber while you slept, and
your dreaming fancy took advantage of the incident to frame this
tale about the Princess and her gift. It is often so in dreams.
The consciousness perceives things as it were through a cloud, and
weaves fictions out of realities."

Then he began to doubt, but still he held his ground, and said,
"Yet hear how sweetly it sings! No wild, untaught bird of earth
could sing like that." Whereat they were vastly merry, and one cried,
Why, it is quite a common 'tweet-tweet!' It is no more than the
chirp of a vulgar, everyday thrush or linnet!" And another, "Were
I you, I would wring the bird's neck; it must be a terrible nuisance
if it always makes such a noise!" And a third, "Let it fly, we
cannot hear ourselves speaking for its screaming!" Then the traveler
began to feel ashamed of his bird. "All that I say," he thought,
"appears to them foolish, even the Princess's gift is, in their
eyes, a common chirping chaffinch. What if indeed I have been dreaming;
what if this, after all, should be the real world, and the other a
mere fantasy?"