42 BEAUTIFUL BIRDS 
Birds of Paradise. And I think that if you were there 
and saw that happen—saw those beautiful birds fall 
down dead—murdered—all of a sudden—you would 
be sorry and angry too, and you would say that only 
a demon could have done so wicked a thing. 
You would be right if you were to say so. It 
could only be a demon—that same little demon 
that I told you about who sang a charm to send 
the Goddess of Pity to sleep and then froze 
the hearts of the women with his bad, wicked 
powder. That wretched little demon who wears the 
magic suit of clothes, which makes him seem all that 
he ought to be, is always killing the poor Birds of 
Paradise, just when they are feeling so happy and 
looking so beautiful. He does not do it himself 
(any more than the women), for, as he could not be 
in more than one place at a time, he would not be 
able to kill a sufficient number to satisfy him, and 
besides he has a great many other things of the same 
kind, but more important, to do. So he makes his 
servants doit. ‘That has always been his plan. He has 
servants all over the world, and you must not think that 
they are as bad as himself, for that is not the case at all. 
They are not bad, but enchanted, so that they do all 
sorts of bad things without having any idea that they are 
bad. In fact they generally think that they are the 
finest things in the world, The demon has all sorts of 
