WHat PH PHENIX: SAID 25 
never sing in the daytime any more, but only at 
night when the beautiful strangers were asleep. That 
is why the nightingale sings by night and not by 
day—only since the Birds of Paradise have lost their 
voice (which I am going to tell you about) she does 
sing in the daytime sometimes, just a little. 
So the Birds of Paradise were kings and ‘“‘ prima 
donnas” amongst the birds of earth, and they were 
happy—for a time. They were not quite so happy 
after a little while, for they got tired of hearing the 
birds praise them, and, wherever they looked, they 
saw nothing to give them pleasure. The earth, 
indeed, was beautiful, but they remembered Paradise, 
and that made it seem ugly. There was nothing 
for them to see that was worth the seeing, or to hear 
that was worth the listening to, except their own 
beauty and their own song. But that reminded them 
of Paradise, and they could not bear to be reminded 
of it now that they had lost it for ever. In fact they 
were miserable, and it was not long before they 
were all fluttering outside the gates of Paradise, and 
begging the Phenix to let them in. But the Phenix 
said, ‘“No,I cannot. I warned you that the gates of 
Paradise could only be passed twice, once in and once 
out, and then no more. I tried to keep you from 
going, but you chose to go, and now you must 
stay outside. You can never enter Paradise again.” 
