Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-13
By S. Ten E yck Bourke


AFIAN, MITTU crouched low on, his perch, his
IN body tilted forward his wings held free to the
vagrant breeze, the long tips of his flying
feathers trailing his scarlet tail the gor
geous note in his soft toned gray cooring His gold
bright eyes b1inked drowsily and the black lids
dropped in the intense tropical heat of that lay
in a shmmering opaescent haze upon all India. Heat
Milan Mittu had known in his own tangled South
African forests but such this, where the
Jungle beasts and their brother parrots of brilliant
Iumage and vacant minds, scattered to the shadows
till the sunset hour He hated he hated all things
in this land of his new abode he onged for his haunts
of other days, away from the stupid man-folk.
For them he held small tolerance. One there had
been, until the black plague descended on this sun
cursed land, the young subatern who hunting big
game in the stretches of Milan Mttu's forests,
had come upon his small feathered body where it lay
stunned fair prey for stronger birds and prowling
beasts at the foot of wind rven tree after of
those fierce sudden storms that occasionally sweep
over South Africa.
The young subaltern, detecting faint futtering
in the feathered breast compassonatey gathered up
the helpless bird, warming 1t against his own body,
and, since to him Milan Mittu owed his life, his wise
little heart babe him repay with gratitude and the
penitude of his gifts
They formed a bond of comradeship, these two,
the and the parrot, and when the young subal-
term on the expiration of his furlough returned to
his regiment in India Milan Mttu journeyed with him
The Wise One thus the gray parrot was known in
those days to his winged brothers and this man of
comprehension learned there to chatter in the man
tongue; to whistle J1nSng DarTack tunes and repeat
the regmental calls to voice the barking of dogs and
the neighng of horses; setting the square agog with
strident orders from the window where he Once
he achieved the discontinue of the entire regi
ment to the everlasting shame and wrath of its Colo
mel and the delight of the subalterns
Also the gray parrot learned to perch in compan-
ionable silence upon the high chair back when pic
lures formed in the curling smoke spirals from the
mans pipe and he drifted into vague reverie.
AS brother with brother they lived, Milan Mittu
sharing in the events of the days routine with equa
BILE philosophy. At night he assisted gravely at the
card table, drawing corks with gusto, and shriekng
approval when the man held the winning hand.
Then had come the desoatng plague With it the
regiment fell heir to the Wise One; but it was
rade, scarcely yelling his contempt for these man
folk who were too stupid to understand the ways of
the little feathered brothers And since he would not
i'ay the butfoon for them, they left him UNDECIDED
perch grouchlly in his window nook. Even his name
they forgot Milan Mittu they called him now after
the fashion of all parrots in this hated land, and
above all else he hated that name.
With the passing of time Milan Mittu's evil mood
settled to dignhed reserve. Converse he vol
unteered. He met it with naughty stare,
tempt uousy cooking his head one side but he no
longer vented his resentment with beak and claw
upon the unintentionally intrusive.
EVENTUALLY as the first cloud drifted away
- there came to the regiment commander,
headed Elise. And with them to Milan Mittu
the great love that flames in parrots heart.
and then for all time.
To their cool, pleasant dining Man Mittu
deserving his old post ventured morning, and,
finding it to his liking, made it henceforth his abode.
fascinating scarlet tail as he promenaded across