In former times there lived an old woman in a state of extreme debility. She
possessed a cot more narrow than the heart of the ignorant and darker than the
miser's grave; and a Cat was her companion, which had never seen, even in the
mirror of imagination, the face of a loaf, nor had heard from friend or stranger
the name of meat. It was content if occasionally it smelt the odour of a mouse
from its hole, or saw the print of the foot of one on the surface of a board, and if,
on some rare occasion, by the aid of good fortune one fell into its claws, it
subsisted a whole week, more or less, on that amount of food.
And, inasmuch as the house of the old woman was the famine-year of that Cat, it
was always miserable and thin, and from a distance appeared like an idea.
One day, through excessive weakness, it had, with the utmost difficulty,
mounted on the top of the roof; thence it beheld a Cat which walked proudly on
the wall of a neighbouring house, and after the fashion of a destroying lion
advanced with measured steps, and from excessive fat lifted its feet slowly.
When the Cat of the old woman saw this, it was astonished and cried out, saying:
"Thou, whose state is thus pleasant, whence art thou? and since it appears that
thou comest from the banquet-chamber of the Khan of Khata, whence is this
sleekness of thine, and from what cause this thy grandeur and strength?"
The Neighbour-Cat replied: "I am the crumb-eater of the tray of the Sultan.
Every morning I attend on the court of the king, and when they spread the tray of
invitation, I display boldness and daring, and in general I snatch off some
morsels of fat meats, and of loaves made of the finest flour; and thus I pass my
time happy and satisfied till the next day."
The Cat of the old woman inquired: "What sort of a thing may fat meat be? and
what kind of relish has bread, made of fine flour? I, during my whole life, have
never seen nor tasted aught save the old woman's broths, and mouse's flesh."
The Neighbour-Cat laughed, and said: "Therefore it is that one cannot
distinguish thee from a spider, and this form and appearance that thou hast is a
reproach to our whole race. If thou shouldst see the court of the Sultan and smell
the odour of those delicious viands, thou wouldst acquire a fresh form."
The Cat of the old woman, said, most beseechingly, "O brother! thou art bound
to me by neighbourship and kinship; why not this time, when thou goest, take
me with thee? Perchance, by thy good fortune, I may obtain food."