i hid at the near side of the wilderness (said the girl, bird-of-gold), for i was too fearful to go back to the encampment and too fearful to go farther on. i ate the wild fruits that grew on the bushes, and at night i covered myself with dried leaves and branches and slept in a hole. i thought how he had been destroyed, that man whose good fortune had been above every one else’s good fortune, and i did not know how such a one as i could keep alive. i was fearful while i slept, and when i awoke and sat upon a heap of leaves in that empty wilder[pg 87]ness i was most miserable. i remembered the writing on the pillar that told me to take the road to the right on the day i left my father’s hut and i put a curse upon the road i took. i cursed it because it had brought me, not to my fortune as the writing said it would bring me, but back to the hut i had left. and things were even worse with me from that time than they were before, for my return had brought me to the encounter with the king, and to the voyage with the captain of the king’s ships, and to the dangerous place where i was now.
but then i began to think that although that road had brought me to my father’s hut it had not brought me back to a life that was as it had been before. what had happened after i had come back to the hut had brought me farther away than that road could have led to. perhaps the writing on the pillar was not lying, after all. it had said: they who take the road to the right will come at last to their fortune. perhaps my fortune was farther away than i had thought.
then i said to myself that my journeys were not[pg 88] yet ended, and that if i went on i should yet come to what the writing on the pillar had promised. i sat still for a while with this thought in my mind, and then i rose up and went through the wilderness, going straight on toward a star that was still in the sky.
i left the wilderness with its low shrubs at last, and i came out on a wide, green plain. before going on that plain i ate again of the wild fruit that was on the bushes and i brought some of the wild fruit with me. i went on and on over the miles of grass. and when it was midday i saw a whiteness upon the plain before me.
i went toward that whiteness and in a while i saw that it was all in movement. there were white living creatures there. i went on, and i came near to where there was a hollow in the plain, and i saw in that hollow a mighty flock of ducks. they were tame, for they did not rise up and fly as i came near.
i looked on them with great astonishment. i had never seen so many ducks together. i looked them all over and i made a guess that there were[pg 89] a thousand ducks there. and i had never seen such beauty in ducks before. for these ducks were of a gleaming whiteness, and moreover they had a shapeliness that i had never seen in such creatures before. i thought and thought, but i could not think how they had come into this unpeopled plain in such a vast flock.
i sat down on the grass and i watched them feeding, thinking surely that some one would come and drive the flock to some market or to some great farm. i watched, and the ducks ate and ate in the hollow where they stayed. when the darkness came the thousand ducks put their heads each under a wing and settled down on the ground. i pulled grass to make a bed for myself, and ate the fruit i had brought with me, and lay down in a cold place near the hollow.
i was awakened by the thousand ducks quacking loudly, and i looked and saw that they had spread themselves over the plain and were moving in a direction. i thought i should follow the ducks, and i did, and i was able to chase away two or three foxes that would have hunted them.
[pg 90]
they were beautiful, these thousand ducks, as they went over the green plain. they were shapely and active, and they had a wonderful soft whiteness. the drakes were not colored differently, but they had crests and tails that curled. when they knew i was with them they did not go straying here and there, but kept themselves together as a flock and went marching in a direction. i thought that they might bring me to my fortune. and then i thought that this great flock of ducks, so strangely without an owner, was my fortune.
i was faint and hungry, but i went on rejoicing in the beauty of the ducks. i gave them time to feed and they fed. at last i came to the gate of a town. the watcher was astonished at the greatness of the flock and he called to the townspeople to come out and fill their eyes with the spectacle. they came and asked me, “who are you, o girl?” and i made answer, “i am the girl whose fortune is in ducks.” the people came on the walls of the town and looked over them, while the ducks spread themselves out, standing still. and more[pg 91] and more the people marveled at the number and the extraordinary beauty of the ducks.
the people set a place apart for the ducks and they gave me a shelter in which i might rest and refresh myself. after a while i heard them say, “the officers of the great king of babylon should see this girl and her ducks. there is a marvel here for the great king to hear about.” people came to see the ducks as a spectacle, and one would say to the other, “no prince by any river in china has such a wonderful collection of ducks.”
and then i was told that the officers of the great king of babylon would come to look on my flock. these officers had come into the country to get for the king’s gardens birds and beasts that were remarkable.
they came and looked on the flock, and marveled that, whether they rested or were feeding, the thousand ducks harkened to my call and went as i bade them go. they spoke, admiring their shape and whiteness. and then a dwarf who had a crown of crimson feathers on his head came[pg 92] amongst them and the officers spoke to him. this dwarf told me they would take the flock for the king, and that they would take me also to the great city, where i would have the office of minding the ducks in the king’s gardens.
so i brought the thousand ducks down to a great barge that was on the river, and i went on the barge, and the officers of the king with the dwarf that had the crown of crimson feathers on his head went aboard of it, and we sailed down the river, and we came into the great city. for two days the king had me show the wondrous flock in the market place as a spectacle for the people. all babylon came and admired the number and the comeliness of the ducks. afterward they were brought to the lake that was in the king’s gardens. as time went on many of the flock were taken by the purveyors and killed and eaten in the palace. but still they remained a wonder for their number and their comeliness. the king often came down to look on the thousand ducks, swimming on the water, or staying in their companies around the lake.
