could get, and in the morning went into the country. And every party of people who went to the Sultan to give him information about the business of the cat could not get to him.
And the cat went on moving forward into the country, catching what it could get; and it got fowls, and it got dogs, and it got goats, and it got cattle, and it got people; whatsoever passed before it it caught, and when it found nothing to catch it exerted itself seeking for something; and the night was the town's, and in the morning it went into the country. The business went on just in the same way, the cat preying, and the Sultan not to be got at.
Till one day the Sultan said, "To-day I am going to look at the country; let us go, children, and look." And the six sons accompanied the Sultan. And they went on until in the road there was a thicket; the six sons were behind and their father in front. The cat came out of the forest and killed three of the sons. The people started, "The cat! the cat! the cat! the cat!" And the soldiers said to him, "Master, let us look for it and kill it." And he said, "Seek for it and kill it." And they said, "All right, master."
And he said, "This is no longer a cat, its name is Nunda, which came and caught from me even my sons." And they said to him, "Master, the cat will not make a selection, this is the master's son let me leave him alone; or, this is the master's wife, let me leave her; or, this is the master's relative, let me leave him; the cat has nothing like this in it to make selections. We fear for you, master, its eating even you." And he said, "True, it will eat even me." "Did we not tell you, master, how the cat was finishing people, and you said, 'My cat and my people.'" And he said, "True, I said it."
The soldiers, when they went to strike that cat, some
