Legend

Bayran Sulu’s three Peacock Feathers came from the city gardens, where peacocks roam free. She had picked up only those the birds had let fall by themselves – long and lustrous, each with an eye at its tip that seemed to watch.

Towards the end of summer a young prince came calling. He kept peacocks in gilded cages and plucked their feathers for his robes, but the birds were wasting away, and new feathers would not grow. He gave them the finest grain and clean water.

“And still they’re bald and grey,” he complained.

“When did you last see a peacock spread its tail?” Bayran asked.

The prince could not remember. Bayran laid her three feathers across his palms.

“Let your peacocks go.”

The prince turned the feathers in the light. The eyes shimmered green and gold, full and untouched. He thought of the plucked tails in his cages and hung his head.

“A peacock never grudges its feathers,” said Bayran. “It sheds them every year, and every year they grow back finer. Plucked ones never return.”

The Peacock Feathers stayed with Bayran Sulu. And from the next spring on, the peacocks in the prince’s gardens roamed free and spread their tails whenever they pleased.