From the folklore of Kashmir
There was a certain country, the land of Persia, and it was ruled by a king named Bahadur Khan. He had made a garden for his womenfolk, into which no stranger was allowed to enter; but once there came into it a Faqir (a wandering wise man). The discerners then discerned him, and the newsmen gave the news to the King. Said they, “A Faqir has come into the garden.” The King heard, and took with him his Vizier. To the garden they went, and there he saw the Faqir.
The Almighty, who hath a hundred thousand names, watcheth over every path.
Hark ye, loyalty is monstous rare.
“O Faqir, how didst thou enter. Where dost thou belong? Whence art thou
come?”
Quoth the Faqir: “I came but for a stroll. What of yours have I eaten?”
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
It chanced that before the King there was a flowering plant, and at its foot a dead nightingale. As soon as they spoke angrily to the Faqir, he fell flat, lifeless to the ground, and as he did so the nightingale arose alive. Such magic power did he show the king. The nightingale flew out of the garden, and returned. Then it fell dead and the Faqir again became alive. He began to depart, but they entreated him, saying:
“O Faqir, let me be thy servant!
Cups of the cream of milk will I fill for thee.
Special pilaos and dainties wilt thou not eat!”
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
So the Faqir confided the secret of his magic power to the King, and the King confided it to his Vizier.
The King gave instructions to the Vizier,
And he thus became proficient in the secret.
They went out hunting together.
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
In the forest they saw a parrot lying dead.
“O Vizier, how beautiful this must have been.
Part thou, I beseech thee, thy life into it for but a moment.”
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
Said the Vizier:
“My King, for long hath it been dead.
A stink cometh from it; who knoweth when it died?
Stay here I cannot; Sir, what am I to do?”
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
For this did the King make urgent entreaty to the Vizier. “Fain would I see how beautiful the parrot was,” but the Vizier refused to listen to him.
In his heart there was treachery. At length the King himself abandoned his own body and entered into the parrot. Up rose the parrot, and flew about. Then the Vizier did a deed; he himself entered into the King’s body. That was what had all along been in his heart.
The burden which had been the King’s to bear
That became laid upon the foolish Vizier.
Treachery was watching in him like a petitioner.
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
The parrot is flying in the air, and the Vizier is in the body of the King. He stood up, mounted the King’s horse, and went into the army.
He said to them:
“The Vizier fell from his horse and is dead.”
That was the news that the newsman brought.
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
When this Vizier had done the deed, and when he had entered into the King’s body, in his hand he raised his sword, and into small pieces did he cut his own dead body. Then said he to his army, “Go forth, ye archers, and ye gunmen. Whoever of you killeth a parrot, to him will be given a reward.” When the parrot heard this order he fled afar, and went to the Faqir, who on that day had been in the garden.
He gave the order to the archer,
“Pay ye heed, I pray, to my coaxing.”
He gave an order that the parrot should be killed.
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
Now, as for the real king, he was in the parrot, and had taken refuge with the Faqir; so that parrot was not killed by anyone. One day the Vizier-King sallied forth to hunt; and when he had reached a certain place he descried a hind. After it they made pursuit. They brought it into the army, and he said to them, “I will cut off the head of him who letteth her escape.”
But the hind gave a sudden spring and leaped over the head of the Vizier-King himself. They pursued her. Now the parrot-King was with the Faqir, and the Faqir was a magician clairvoyant. Quoth he to the parrot-King, “Go forth, your Majesty, to-day wilt thou regain thine own body.” Meanwhile the hind had far outdistanced her pursuers.
There lay a dead bear. The Vizier-King entered into the bear and pursued the hind, leaving the real King’s body lying on the ground.
The news of the Vizier-King’s coming was heard by the parrot.
Thither did he run.
He waited, watching from a tree-hole.
He again entered into his own body; wish ye him all good luck!
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
Down fell the parrot dead, and the King entered his own body, but he who had been the Vizier was now in the bear. The real King mounted his horse, and said to his men, “Shoot ye that bear.” They fired with their gun at him, and brake his leg. They seized him and brought him before the King. Said the King, “Treachery was done by thee to me. What can I do but kill thee? Otherwise people will say of me, ‘He hath a bear for a Vizier.’ Thou hast destroyed thine own body. Now no longer can I keep a bear like thee as a Vizier. Sir, I am about to kill thee.”
They brought firewood, and they burnt the Vizier to ashes.
A hundred years passed, less or more.
And then came the messenger of Dead to Bahadur Khan.
O Wahb, the blacksmith, cry “Allah, Allah!”
Hark ye, loyalty is monstrous rare.
Source:
Hatim’s Tales: Kashmiri Stories and Songs, Aurel Stein, George Grierson, 1923
Kotharian Lightning 