"Lovely Palaistra,” said I, “how gracefully
you turn and sway your body and the kettle at
the same time! My marrow melts at the sight.
He is a lucky man who dips his finger in that
dish."
The girl was of a very lively humor and full of
charming ways. "Fly, young man,” said she, “if


 



you are in your senses and want to live. I am
made of fire and smoke. If you should but touch
me you will sit here covered with blisters, burned
through by me.
No doctor will heal you, not even
a god, save only me who burned you. Strangest
of all, I will make you suffer the more, and you
will cherish the painful cure and cling to it, and
you would be stoned rather than escape from
your pleasant pain. Why do you laugh? You
see before you a scientific cook of men. These
trumpery eatables are not the only things I can
prepare; no, I know well how to butcher and
flay and carve that great and noble viand, man.
My dearest pleasure is to lay hold of his very
vitals and heart."
"You are perfectly right," I said; "for even
while I was at a distance, before I had come near
you, you not only burned me, by Heavens! but set
me all in a blaze. Through my eyes you flung
your
invisible fire into my vitals and are roasting
me, though I never did you any harm. So, heal
me, in the name of goodness, with those bittersweet remedies you speak of yourself. I am
butchered already; take me and flay me as you
will."

At this she burst into a peal of sweet laughter,
and after that she was a complete conquest.

 
I said to her one day, "My dear, get me sight of
your mistress practising her mysteries or changing


 


her shape. For a long time I have been eager to
see this curious thing. Or, better still, if you
know anything of the black art, exhibit it yourself, and show yourself to me in some other form
than your own. I have a notion that you are not
altogether ignorant of this science, and I know it
from my own heart, not from hearsay; for I used
to be adamantine, the women said, and I never
cast these eyes tenderly on any girl before; but
you laid hold of me by your arts and led me off,
after our loving contest, as the captive of your
spear."
"Stop making fun of me," said Palaistra.
"What incantation could charm Love, since he
is lord of all sorcery? No, sweetheart; I swear
by your head that I know nothing whatever of
these things. I have never learned so much as
my letters, and my mistress is very jealous of her
art. But if I should have a chance, I will try
to show her to you in the act of changing her
shape."
 
A few days later Palaistra informed me that
her mistress was intending to put on the guise of
a bird and fly off to her lover.
"Now is your time, Palaistra," said I, "to do
me a kindness; for it is in your power to satisfy
the long-cherished desire of your suppliant."
"Never fear," said she. And when it was evening she came for me, and brought me to the door


 



of the chamber in which her master and mistress
slept, and bade me stand by a narrow chink in
the door and watch what was going on within.
Well, I saw the lady stripping off her clothes.
When she was naked she advanced to the lamp,
took two grains of incense and cast them on the
flame, and, standing still, addressed a long speech
to it. Then she opened a strong little chest with
a great many boxes in it, lifted one of them and
took it out. I do not know the nature of the
contents, but from its appearance I judged it was
oil. From this box she anointed herself completely, beginning with her finger-nails, and suddenly feathers sprang out on her, her nose grew
horny and curved, and she displayed all the other
properties and traits of a bird. She was nothing
else than a night-hawk. When she was completely feathered she gave a harsh cry like a hawk's,
stood up, and took her flight out of the window.
 
I thought I must be dreaming such a sight as
this, and rubbed my eyelids with my fingers, not
believing that I had seen with my own waking
eyes. When I had at length with difficulty convinced myself that I was not asleep, I forthwith
begged Palaistra to anoint me, too, with that drug,
and feather me and let me fly; for I wanted to
learn by experiment whether if my human shape
was altered I should have the mind, too, of a bird.
She stealthily opened the bedroom door and


 


brought the box. I had already made haste to
strip, and I anointed myself from head to toe.
But alas, alack! I did not become a bird! No;
a tail grew out on me behind, my fingers and toes
disappeared somehow, my nails reduced themselves to four and were nothing more nor less
than hoofs, my hands and feet became the feet
of a beast of burden, my ears grew long, and my
face enormous. When I surveyed myself all
over I saw that I was an ass, but I had no human voice left wherewith to blame Palaistra.
However, I stretched out my lower lip, and by
my shape itself and by my sidelong asinine glance
I reproached her as well as I could for having
made me an ass instead of a bird. She smote
her face with both hands. "Wretched girl that
I am," she cried, "what a dreadful thing I have
done! In my hurry I blundered, because the
boxes were so alike, and brought the wrong one,
not the one that makes feathers grow. But cheer
up, do, sweetheart! There is a very easy cure
for this. You have only to eat some roses, and
the beast will immediately fall from you and you
will give me back my lover. Only stay this one
night, dear, in the ass, and at daybreak I will run
and fetch you some roses, and you will eat them
and be cured."
While she spoke thus she stroked my ears and
the rest of my hide.