'Lodge!'" Now this cry of the Bird was hard upon the young Prince
and he had no sooner pronounced the word "Lodge!" than the
Philomelet took up somewhat of dust beside his cage and scattered
it upon him, when forthright he became a stone lying beside his
brother. Now the youngest of the three Princes was sitting at
meat with his sire when suddenly the signet shrank till it was
like to cut off his finger; so he rose forthright to his feet and
said, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah,
the Glorious, the Great." Quoth his father, "What is to do with
thee, O my son?" and quoth he, "By Allah, my brother is ruined
and wasted, so needs must I also fare forth and look after the
twain of them." Exclaimed his sire, "Why, O my son, should you
three be cut off?" but the other answered, "Needs must I do this,
nor can I remain after them without going to see what hath
betided them, and either we three shall return in safety and
security or I also shall become one of them." So the father bade
them prepare for his journey and after they had got ready for him
a sufficiency of provision he farewelled him and the youth set
out. But when he departed from his sire the old man and his wife
filleted their brows with the fillets of sorrow[FN#295] and they
fell to weeping by night and by day. Meanwhile the youth left not
wayfaring till he reached the stead of the Bird and the hour was
mid-afternoon, when he found his brothers ensorcelled to stones,
and about sunset he sat down at the distance from Philomelet who
took station upon his cage and began to cry, "Ho thou who sayest
to the mean and mesquin, 'Lodge!' Ho thou who sayest to the sad
and severed, 'Lodge!'" together with many words and instances of
the same kind. But the Prince hardened his heart nor would speak
the word, and albeit the Bird continued his cry none was found to
answer him. Now when the sun evanished and he had kept up his