विक्रम चरित (उज्जैन सम्राट् विक्रमादित्य - पराक्रम, न्याय एवं ३२ पुतलियों की कथा सटीक)

42 no good to him, and he employed his mind in endeavouring to invent some scheme by which to thwart the woman's unrelenting purpose. When she passed out of the presence of the merchant, she spoke to the parrot, and said, “You cannot now escape from my hands. Do you recollect how shamefully you exposed me some time ago before the king and his council? We shall soon see if you will now assume the air and tone with which you addressed me on that occasion.” Having reached her dwelling, she called for her cook, and ordered her to kill the bird and have him well dressed for her meal, against her return from her accustomed visit to the king's palace. Saying this, and transferring the poor parrot to the tender care of the matron, she went away on her visit. The cruel cook, who took after her mistress, plucked off the bird's feathers by way of prelude to what was to follow, and left him in that state on the ground while she went into the kitchen to procure a knife with which to cut off his head. The cook did not readily find the knife, and while engaged in searching for it the (to all appearance) unfledged bird looked about him for some means of escape, and happening fortunately just then to think of the spirit Veytal, he offered up a prayer to him, and conjured him up before him from the dark regions he inhabited. In the twinkling of an eye he attended the summons, and, at the request of the parrot, enabled him to fly with the rapidity of lightning, and to disappear in a drain far from the dwelling of the inhuman actress and her still more merciless wretch of a cook. Shortly after this occurrence the latter returned from the kitchen, brandishing a large knife and seeking her victim, but he was gone, to her great alarm and discomfiture. And what was worse, she had no time to go to the bazar to purchase another bird in lieu of the one she had lost by her carelessness, as she expected every moment her mistress would return. She, however, contrived to get one from a neighbour, though of a different species, prepared the dish, and had it ready for her mistress, who returned shortly after. The meal was imme-