benefit
to himself he did not find fault with it.

And this story is adduced to make it apparent that courtesy and
humility are readier means to uproot an enemy than war and contest.

The Old Woman's Cat

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 th