विक्रम चरित (उज्जैन सम्राट् विक्रमादित्य - पराक्रम, न्याय एवं ३२ पुतलियों की कथा सटीक)

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no good to him, and he employed his mind in endeavouring
to invent some scheme by which to thwart the woman's
unrelenting purpose. When she passed out of the presence
of the merchant, she spoke to the parrot, and said, “You
cannot now escape from my hands. Do you recollect how
shamefully you exposed me some time ago before the king
and his council? We shall soon see if you will now assume
the air and tone with which you addressed me on that
occasion.” Having reached her dwelling, she called for
her cook, and ordered her to kill the bird and have him
well dressed for her meal, against her return from her
accustomed visit to the king's palace. Saying this, and
transferring the poor parrot to the tender care of the matron,
she went away on her visit. The cruel cook, who took
after her mistress, plucked off the bird's feathers by way of
prelude to what was to follow, and left him in that state on
the ground while she went into the kitchen to procure a knife
with which to cut off his head. The cook did not readily
find the knife, and while engaged in searching for it the (to
all appearance) unfledged bird looked about him for some
means of escape, and happening fortunately just then to
think of the spirit Veytal, he offered up a prayer to him,
and conjured him up before him from the dark regions he
inhabited. In the twinkling of an eye he attended the
summons, and, at the request of the parrot, enabled him to
fly with the rapidity of lightning, and to disappear in a
drain far from the dwelling of the inhuman actress and her
still more merciless wretch of a cook. Shortly after this
occurrence the latter returned from the kitchen, brandishing
a large knife and seeking her victim, but he was gone, to
her great alarm and discomfiture. And what was worse,
she had no time to go to the bazar to purchase another bird
in lieu of the one she had lost by her carelessness, as she
expected every moment her mistress would return. She,
however, contrived to get one from a neighbour, though of a
different species, prepared the dish, and had it ready for her
mistress, who returned shortly after. The meal was imme-