thee.' The man, admiring the lucidity and sense of her words,
freed the bird from her captivity, and sent her forth aloft.
She, therefore, desirous to know whether the man had understood
the force of her words, and whether he had gleaned any profit
therefrom, said, as she flew aloft, `Shame, sir, on thy
fecklessness! What a treasure that hast lost to-day! For I have
inside me a pearl larger than an ostrich-egg.' When the fowler
heard thereof, he was distraught with grief, regretting that the
bird had escaped out of his hands. And he would fain have taken
her again. `Come hither,' said he, `into my house: I will make
thee right welcome, and send thee forth with honour.' But the
nightingale said unto him, `Now I know thee to be a mighty fool.
Though thou didst receive my words readily and gladly, thou hast
gained no profit thereby. I bade thee never regret the thing
past and gone; and behold thou art distraught with grief because
I have escaped out of thy hands there thou regrettest a thing
past and gone. I charged thee not to try to attain to the
unattainable, and thou triest to catch me, though thou canst not
attain to my path. Besides which, I bade thee never believe a
word past belief, and behold thou hast believed that I had inside
me a pearl exceeding the measure of my size, and hadst not the
sense to see that my whole body doth not attain to the bulk of
ostrich eggs. How then could I contain such a pearl?"'

"Thus senseless, then, are also they that trust in idols: for
these be their handiwork, and they worship that which their
fingers made, saying, `These be our creators.' How then deem
they their creators those which have been formed and fashioned by
themselves? Nay more, they safeguard their gods, lest they be
stolen by thieves, and yet they call them guardians of their