The travellers stopped and heard the bird say:
"He who shall speak here shall be changed into a rock and shall die.
Mahomet-ben-Soltan, you shall never wed the young girl. Ninety-nine
cavaliers have already met death on her account."
Mahomet stayed till morning without saying one word. Then he departed with
his companion for the city where Thithbirth dwelt. When they arrived they
were pressed with hunger. Mahomet's companion said to him:
"Sing that which you heard the bird sing." He began to sing. The young
girl, whom they meant to buy, heard him and asked him from whom he had got
that song.
"From my head," he answered.
Mahomet's companion said: "We learned it in the fields from a singing
bird."
"Bring me that bird," she said, "or I'll have your head cut off."
Mahomet took a lantern and a cage which he placed upon the branch of the
tree where the bird was perching.
"Do you think to catch me?" cried the bird. The next day it entered the
cage and the young man took it away. When they were in the presence of the
young girl the bird said to her:
"We have come to buy you.
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