The Saker[FN#169] and the Birds.
There was once a saker who was a cruel tyrant"--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Fifty-second Night
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the crow pursued, "They relate that there was once a saker who was a cruel tyrant in the days of his youth, so that the raveners of the air and the scavengers of the earth feared him, none being safe from his mischief; and many were the haps and mishaps of his tyranny and his violence, for this saker was ever in the habit of oppressing and injuring all the other birds. As the years passed over him, he grew feeble and his force failed him, so that he was often famished; but his cunning waxed stronger with the waning of his streng
