The heart of the Neighbour-Cat melted at the speaker's lamentable position, and
he resolved that he would not attend the feast without him. The Cat of the old
woman felt new life at these tidings, and descending from the roof stated the
case to his mistress. The old dame began to advise the Cat, saying: "O kind
companion, be not deceived by the words of worldly people and abandon not the
corner of content, for the vessel of covetousness is not filled save with the dust
of the grave." But the Cat had taken into its head such a longing for the
delicacies of the Sultan's table that the medicine of advice was not profitable to
it.
In short, the next day, along with its neighbour, the old woman's Cat, with
tottering steps conveyed itself to court, but before it could arrive there ill-fortune
had poured the water of disappointment on the fire of its wish, and the reason
was as follows:
The day before, the cats had made a general onslaught on the table, and raised an
uproar beyond bounds, and annoyed, to the last degree, the guests and their host.
Wherefore, on this day, the Sultan had commanded that a band of archers,
standing in ambush, should watch, so that for every cat who, holding before its
face the buckler of impudence should enter the plain of audacity, the very first
morsel that it ate should be a liver-piercing shaft.
The old woman's Cat, ignorant of this circumstance, as soon as it smelt the odour
of the viands, turned its face like a falcon to the hunting-ground of the table, and
the scale of the balance of appetite had not yet been weighted by heavy
mouthfuls, when the heart-piercing arrow quivered in its breast.
Dear friend! the honey pays not for the sting,
Content with syrup is a better thing.The Young Tiger
In the environs of Basrah there was an island of excessively pleasant climate,
where limpid waters flowed on every side and life-bestowing zephyrs breathed
around.
From its excessive exquisiteness they called it the "Joy-expanding Wilderness,"
and a Tiger bore sway there, such that from dread of him fierce lions could not