THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS, 125 
quiet else, they held conference together, and re- 
peated whatever they had heard among the guests by 
day. Those two of them that were most notable, 
and masters of this art, were scarce ten feet distant 
from one another. The third hung more remote, so 
that I could not so well hear it, as I lay a-bed. But 
it is wonderful to tell how these two provoked each 
other, and, by answering, invited and drew one ano- 
ther to speak. Yet did they not confound their 
words, or talk both together^, but rather utter them 
alternately, and of course. Besides the daily dis- 
course of the guests, they chaunted out two stories, 
which generally held them from midnight to morn- 
ing, and that with such modulations and inflections 
that no man could have taken to come from such 
creatures. When I asked the host if they had been 
taught, or whether he observed their talking in the 
night, he answered. No. The same said the whole 
family. But I, who could not sleep for nights toge- 
ther, was perfectly sensible of their discourse. 
" One of their stories was concerning the tapster 
and his wife, who refused to follow him to the wars, 
as he desired her ; for the husband endeavoured to 
persuade his wife, as far as I understood by the 
M 2 
