15. Totakaháni, Tales of a Parrot, by Haidar Hassan, published in 1215 a.h., or 1801 a.d., at the Chasma-i-faiz Press, Dehlí: 64 pp. 8vo. It is a polished prose translation of a Persian work of the same name into Urdú. It relates the story of Maimún, a prince, who left his wife in charge of a mainá (starling) and a parrot. She contracts an illicit alliance, whereon the mainá remonstrates and is killed; but the parrot, being cleverer, keeps her attention fixed on stories he tells her till her husband comes, when he explains her conduct, and she is put to death.
A king named Ahmad Sultán, through the intercession of holy men and saints, was blessed with an exceedingly handsome son, whom he named Maimún. He was married to a beautiful girl called Khujasta, with whom he lived very happily. He purchased her a magnificent parrot that could talk like a man and knew the past and the future, and to keep the bird company he purchased also a mainá. He afterwards went on a journey, and advised his wife to follow the advice of the two birds in all her difficulties during his absence. While he was away she fell in love with another prince and counselled the mainá as to how she was to get to him. The mainá rebuked her sharply, and was killed for her pains. She then went to the parrot, and the wily bird, sympathising with her, advised her to follow the plan adopted by Farrukh Beg in a similar plight. The parrot then relates how Farrukh Beg managed with his mistress, and so on for thirty-five other stories, until Maimún returned, when on finding out how his wife had behaved he put her to death.
16. Dastan-i-Amír Hamza, Tales of Amir Hamza, by Khalíl Khán, published in 1800 by authority, under the superintendence of Dr. Gilchrist, at Dehlí: 4 vols. 8vo. pp. 216, 84, 78, 100. It is a rough prose translation into Urdu in an antiquated style of a Persian work of the same name. The story goes that Akbar the Emperor was so much taken with the valour of Hindús as related in the Maháhhárata, that the Muhammadan divines invented the tales in this book, and attributed them to Amír Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet, and that, they then induced the Emperor to believe
