“She became like a beggar who discovers a treasure of gold;
Her cheeks glowed with rapture, and past grief was consumed by present joy.”
This feast would last for a week or more; and while enjoying it she was wont to exclaim—
“Am I, O God, when I contemplate this, in a dream or awake?
Am I to experience such prosperity after such adversity?”
But as the dwelling of the old woman was in general the mansion of famine to this cat, she was always complaining, and forming extravagant and fanciful schemes. One day, when reduced to extreme weakness, she, with much exertion, reached the top of the hut; when there she observed a cat stalking on the wall of a neighbour’s house, which, like a fierce tiger, advanced with measured steps, and was so loaded with flesh that she could hardly raise her feet. The old woman’s friend was amazed to see one of her own species so fat and sleek, and broke out into the following exclamation:—
“Your stately strides have brought you here at last; pray tell me from whence you come?
From whence have you arrived with so lovely an appearance?
You look as if from the banquet of the Khan of Khatai.
Where have you acquired such a comeliness? and how came you by that glorious strength?”
The other answered, “I am the Sultan’s crumb-eater. Each morning, when they spread the convivial table, I attend at the palace, and there exhibit my address and courage. From among the rich meats and wheat-cakes I cull a few choice morsels; I then retire and pass my time till next day in delightful indolence.”
The old dame’s cat requested to know what rich meat was, and what taste wheat-cakes had? “As for me,” she added, in a melancholy tone, “during my life I have neither eaten nor seen anything but the old woman’s gruel and the flesh of mice.” The other, smiling, said, “This accounts for the difficulty I find in distinguishing you from a spider. Your shape and stature is such as must make the whole generation of cats blush; and we must ever feel ashamed while you carry so miserable an appearance abroad.
You certainly have the ears and tail of a cat,
But in other respects you are a complete spider.
Were you to see the Sultan’s palace, and to smell his delicious viands, most undoubtedly those withered bones would be restored; you would receive new life; you would come from behind the curtain of invisibility into the plane of observation—
When the perfume of his beloved passes over the tomb of a lover,
Is it wonderful that his putrid bones should be re-animated?”