His wife, however, could not abide their chirping and hated them.
And then, one day, something happened.
The old lady was out in the garden washing the clothes, when a sparrow came along and ate the rice starch she was using.
The old lady was so angry that she captured the sparrow and cut off its tongue.
The poor sparrow fled screeching back to the mountains.
When the old man heard about this, he felt so sorry for the sparrow that he went looking for it.