I had heard many particulars of this story, and as severed by
people hard to be discredited, which made me ask Prince Maurice what
there was of it. He said, with his usual plainness and dryness in
talk, there was something true, but a great deal false of what had
been reported. I desired to know of him what there was of the first.
He told me short and coldly, that he had heard of such an old parrot
when he had been at Brazil; and though he believed nothing of it,
and it was a good way off, yet he had so much curiosity as to send for
it: that it was a very great and a very old one; and when it came
first into the room where the prince was, with a great many Dutchmen
about him, it said presently, What a company of white men are here!
They asked it, what it thought that man was, pointing to the prince.
It answered, Some General or other. When they brought it close to him,
he asked it, D'ou venez-vous? It answered, De Marinnan. The Prince,
A qui estes-vous? The Parrot, A un Portugais. The Prince, Que
fais-tu la? Parrot, Je garde les poulles. The Prince laughed, and
said, Vous gardez les poulles? The Parrot answered, Oui, moi; et je
scai bien faire; and made the chuck four or five times that people use
to make to chickens when they call them. I set down the words of
this worthy dialogue in French, just as Prince Maurice said them to
me.
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