VI
NUNDA THE SLAYER AND THE ORIGIN OF THE ONE-EYED
ONCE upon a time there was a Sultan, and he had seven sons, and he gave them ships, and they all went abroad to trade, and came back with much wealth, all except the youngest, who brought back only a dog and a cat, and he kept the dog and the cat till they grew and grew, and at last the dog died.
Then he kept the cat, and it grew and grew, till at last one day it ate a whole goat.
And it still grew, till one day the son said to the Sultan, "My father, give me an ox for my cat to eat," and he gave him an ox, and the cat grew and grew, till at last he finished all the camels and oxen of the Sultan.
HE KEPT THE CAT AND IT GREW AND GREW
So the Sultan said to his son, "You must turn that cat out of the town, as it has eaten all our wealth."
So that cat was turned out and went to live in the bush, and there it grew and grew, and it was called Nunda.
Till one day it came into the town and ate everybody in that town, all the people and the Sultan himself and all his sons; but the Sultan's wife was upstairs, and she shut the door and was saved, but everybody else in the town was eaten.
And when the Nunda thought that he had finished everybody he went again into the bush and there he lived.