This king had a daughter, and she often noticed Petit Perroquet, because he was polite to everybody. In this city there was a prince, and he was paying court to this young princess, and he was seized with dislike and jealousy of Petit Perroquet. One day this prince[11] went to find the king. He said to him,
“You do not know what Petit Perroquet says?—that he could bring the Tartaro’s horse here.”
The king sends for Petit Perroquet, and says to him,
“It seems that you have said that you could bring the Tartaro’s horse here?”
“I certainly did not say it.”
“Yes, yes,” said the king, “you said it.”
“If you will give me all that I ask for, I will try.”
He asks for a great deal of money, and sets off. He travels on, and on, and on, and he had to pass a wide river. He speaks to the ferryman, and pays the passage money, and tells him that perhaps he will have a heavy load on his return, but that he will be well paid.
He lands on the other side; but he had yet a long way to go in the forest, because the Tartaro lived in a corner of the mountain. At last he arrives, and knocks at the door. An old, old woman comes to him, and says to him,
“Be off from here as quickly as possible; my son smells the smell of a Christian a league off.”