The World of Courtesans c9.102

c9.102

Pramati naturally joined the crowd and when he laughed, a gay Brahman who was seated near him asked him the cause of his merriment. Pramati said, "How can men be such fatheads as to match Crane, that cock in the western pen, against Cocoanut, the rooster in the eastern pen?" The Brahman, who also happened to be an expert asked him to be quiet. The nitwits around hardly deserved a tip. There he offered him a *pan* and entertained him with spicy anecdotes. "Then the two birds went at each other full tilt stab and counter stab, with wing-flapping and defiant cock-a-doodling." The poor cock in the western pen was beaten.