62 BEAUTIFUL BIRDS 
hat. It is better that beautiful birds should be alive 
and you not see them, than that they should be 
killed or made miserable for you to look at. 
Now you may be sure that if the poor Great Bird 
of Paradise is killed because he is so beautiful, so is 
the poor Red Bird of Paradise because fe is. It is 
dreadful to e sure of such a thing, and it is all because 
of the wicked little demon, and the Goddess of Pity 
being asleep. When the wicked little demon has 
been driven away, and the Goddess of Pity has been 
woken up—and it is you who are going to wake 
her—then you may be sure that no beautiful birds 
will be killed, and that the more beautiful they are 
the less people will ever think of killing them. But 
that time is not come yet. It will not come till you 
have read this book right through and finished it. 
Now you remember that the Great Bird of Para- 
dise is shot with arrows by a naked black man with 
frizzly hair like a mop—a man that we call a savage, 
though, really, he is not nearly so savage as some 
men who wear clothes all over them. You see, where 
he lives it is very warm, so that he does not want 
clothes, and he looks very much better without them, 
for his black, smooth skin is very handsome indeed, 
and so is his frizzly hair. If you saw him you would 
think him a very nice, amiable person, for he is always 
laughing and springing about, and his white teeth do 
