“The rooster, who, beating and clapping his wings, had jumped on a hen and, finishing with her, jumped down and jumped on another. The merchant heard and understood what the dog said in his own language to the rooster, “Shameless, no-good rooster. Aren’t you ashamed to do such a thing on a day like this?” The dog replied, “Don’t you know that our master and friend is in mourning today? His wife is demanding that he disclose his secret, and when he discloses it, he will surely die. He is in this predicament about to interpret to her the language of the animals, and all of us are mourning for him, while you clap your wings and get off one hen and jump on another. Aren’t you ashamed?” The merchant heard the rooster reply, “You fool, you lunatic! Our master and friend claims to be wise, but he is foolish, for he has only one wife, yet he does not know how to manage her.” The dog asked, “What should he do with her?”, (p. 566) The Tale of Merchant and His Wife.
Added Tale :
The rooster replied, “Why you called me “Shameless, no-good roosters!” go and call that wife “a shameless, devil wife” The merchant and his wife; they are not enemy of each other having only thought and desire to have each other’s life gone in order to satisfy themselves but they are wife and husband. I, as an animal, know that life and bond of husband and wife are not comprised only by brain or thought but heart and love. Yet on this mourning day, I didn’t ignore but know what is worth my life to go on. I myself rooster have and know all these hens in front of me. Our master merchant has only one wife; he should know how to handle and should have never let his life perished by a heartless wife’s demand, to know his secret of life. If I were a merchant I will teach this bustard wife to know how heart and life is worth more than her inquisitive desire to know my secret of death.”
Then the dog asked, “But if you were a merchant, how would you do with the wife?”
A rooster told, “Quietly without letting my wife know, I would tell all family, relatives and friend to stop mourning for me but instead persist to see my wife die. In the room full of people whom she loves, I will let everyone sees her slowly die without having them mourning but persist to see her body being viciously in torment. (This imitates the part stated that, “Everybody was happy and the mourning turned into a celebration.” (p. 566, The Tale of Merchant and His Wife)
As a merchant heard a conversation between the dog and the rooster, he pushes his wife into another quiet room in the house telling her that on this day before he would leave this world forever what makes him sad the most are children and those whom he loves, “My feeling that I would leave the world of my beloved ones is killing me. Before I will never meet them again and you will finally know the secret, I want you to think of those your beloved ones like you would be apart from them forever in this quiet and peaceful room.” The husband then comes back to the room, secretly tells people his plan of stopping his wife from knowing his secret of animal’s language. One by one every people in the room are whispering, all family, relatives and friends who are mourning agreed to comply his plan.
The wife in another room, turns out, all those her beloved faces included most relatives and friends morning in another room come to her head, so does a beautiful memory she has with her husband. But the thought that she is betrayed by her husband overcoming; she is crying for the fact that she never knows the secret. Thus, still she insists to know the secret that her husband hides though it would change with his life, and she would lose her husband forever.
Returning back to the same room her husband is waiting for her with oak branches in his hand. Surrounded with most of those whom she loves, the merchant brutally beat his wife. Without mourning but yelling and provoking the merchant to continue cruelly pain her, her heart breaks by seeing those she loves smiling and laughing at , almost, this last minutes of her painful life. She finally loosens and asks her husband for life, screaming that she doesn’t want to know anything anymore.
The merchant learns how to handle his wife, and the wife also learns how love and life is important and worth.
The merchant would become praised by the words of the rooster and dog. He would go to sleep dreaming about his reward. As he is about to sleep, the merchant over heard the mice on his floor. The mice would tell one another, “did you see what the big guy who lives here did to his wife, he beat her in front of her whole family.” The other mice responds “that doesn’t sound like the big guy i know, every time i see him, he is always nice to his wife and never been violent until yesterday.” Over hearing the words of the mice, the merchant thought hard into the night about the actions he has shown towards his wife and the effect it has on her life and everyone who witnessed the beating. Early in the morning, the merchant had a plan to get his wife back on his side. He gathered all the animals in front of her and told her “all these animals stood by me and never wronged me because they respect me and i respect them, we all have our role on this farm.” The wife listened nodding her head, as he continues “my powers to listen to them, is a secret that has kept this farm in good shape for many years and your desire to know my secret can alter the course of history, and this is why i couldn’t tell you the secret.” The wife sobbing responds “i really didn’t want to know youre secret, as your wife i have my right to know youre secrets but i didn’t know it was this big of a deal.” The wife and husband would come together hugging while the animals would cheer in joy. As the merchant hugged his wife, he saw the same two mice in the corner of his eye. “See i told you the big guy has a warm heart” the second mice tells the first mice. The first mice responds “the merchant has saved his life and gotten his wife back on his side, i can’t believe what im seeing”.
The merchant made his wife understand his role on the farm and communicated with her without the need for violence. She understands respect and the value of her husband in the lives of the animals that surround her.