He has a tongue apart--the tongue of an island not far from my country, which we call England." Tu-Kila-Kila drew nearer, and dropped his voice to a confidential whisper.

"Has he seen the Soul of all dead parrots ?" he asked, with keen interest in his voice.

"The parrot that knows Tu-Kila-Kila's secret?
That one over there--the old, the very sacred one ?" M.Peyron gazed round his aviary carelessly.

"Oh, that one," he answered, with a casual glance at Methuselah, as though one parrot or another were much the same to him.

"Yes, I think he saw it.